World Marxist Review 1959-01: Vol 2 Iss 1

Workers of All Countries, Unite!

World
Marxist

Review

PROBLEMS
OF PEACE

and

SOCIALISM

: JANUARY 1959
WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE! VOL. 2, NO. 1

World Marxist Review:
Problems of Peace and Socialism

Theoretical and Information Journal
of Communist and Workers’ Parties

CONTENTS

GRAND PROSPECTS OF BUILDING COMMUNISM AND
STRENGTHENING PEACE (leaders of the world com-
munist movement on the Theses for the USSR Seven-Year
Plan): CHEN YUN, Janos KADAR, Stefan JENRY-
CHOWSKI, Max REIMANN, Jacques DUCLOS, Wm. Z.
FOSTER, Victorio CODOVILLA, Luiz Carlos PRESTES

P. INGRAO: The Defense of Democratic Gains Is a Vital
Condition for Advance to Socialism ;

L. BOHR: Party Tactics and Contact with the Masses.

P. REYES: Some Aspects of the Liberation Movement in
Latin America ___..

HSU PING: Combating the Bourgeois Rightists in
People's China

W. PIECK: We Have Carried Out Karl Liebknecht's Behests

T. DANISZEWSKI: Under the Banner of Proletarian
Internationalism —__.

J. R. CAMPBELL: The Labor Party — Its one
and Ideology

ACTIVITIES OF COMMUNIST AND WORKERS’ PARTIES

The Communist Party of Greece is Forty Years Old
Against Foreign Intervention in Cuba _.

A Nationwide Movement to Accelerate Development
Eleventh Congress of the Chilean C.P. __

The Hungarian People Vote for the Policy of the Party
SHORT NOTICES

EXCHANGE OF VIEWS
"Modern Forms and Methods of sissaisdeeiaail in
Capitalist Enterprises"
LETTERS AND NOTES

Y. HIRANO: Never Again! :
L.N.: An Organ of Militant Marxists in France
J. GIBBONS: A Policeman Looks at the Communist Party

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Grand Prospects of Building
Communism and Strengthening Peace

In connection with the publication of the Theses of the Report to be delivered
by N. S. Khrushchov to the forthcoming Twenty-First Congress of the CPSU on
the target figures for the 1959-65 economic plan, the Editorial Board approached
a number of leaders of the world communist movement for their views, which
we print below, on the international significance of the Plan.

Chen YUN

Deputy Chairman, Central Committee, Communist Party of China

T is not only in the Soviet Union that the

theses of N. S. Khrushchov’s report to
the Twenty-First Congress of the CPSU on
the target figures for 1959-65 are the subject
of discussion these days, and not only in
the socialist countries: they are being dis-
cussed all over the world. Progressives
everywhere have joyfully and _ enthusiasti-
cally hailed this magnificent plan of com-
munist construction in the USSR. As for
the bourgeois reactionaries in the West,
they are stunned and shocked.

The Seven-Year Plan, a component of the
majestic program of communist construction
during the next 15 years, signifies that the
Soviet Union is entering on a new phase of
great importance to all mankind, the phase
of paving the way to the transition to com-
munism.

The theses demonstrate to the world that
the Soviet Union is advancing along the
highroad to communism. They envisage in-
dustrial development with an annual average
growth of 8.6 per cent, based on the latest
achievements of science and_ technology.
while agricultural growth will be determined
by wholesale mechanization and electrifica-
tion; while priority will still be given to
heavy industry, output of consumer goods
will simultaneously be increased in every
way possible; in addition to expanding the
productive forces in the European part of
the country, special attention will be paid
to developing the natural resources in the
Eastern regions. Seven years hence the
socialist productive forces of the Soviet
Union will have grown tremendously; over-
all output of industry will have risen by 80
per cent and agriculture by 70 per cent. This
will prepare the conditions for a steady
growth of well-being, for satisfying the con-
stantly growing material and cultural re-
quirements of the people. It will be the ma-
terial base for the building of communism.

The document also stresses that for the
transition to communism there is needed, in
addition to a powerful material and techni-
cal base, a high degree of consciousness on
the part of all citizens. Comrade Khrusn-
chov calls for a higher level of communist
consciousness and activity, for training the
people in the spirit of collectivism and dili-
gence, awareness of social duty, in the spirit
of socialist internationalism and patriotism,
in the spirit of the lofty moral principles
of the new society; it is necessary, he says,
to overcome the capitalist survivals in the
minds of people, to wage uncompromising
struggle against the hostile bourgeois ideo-
logy, and to intensify the education of func-
tionaries and of all the people in the spirit
of Marxism-Leninism. This is an essential
ideological condition for the transition to
communism.

Proceeding from the principle of the “com-
bining of education with industrial pro-
duction,” as indicated by Marx and Engels
in the Communist Manifesto, the theses em-
phasize the need to improve and develop the
system of public education. During the seven
years the network of general secondary
schools in town and countryside will be ex-
tended; more people will be attending eve-
ning classes and studying by correspondence
at special higher and secondary schools;
there will be more evening schools for urban
and rural youth; all elementary and second-
ary schools will combine socially useful
labor with polytechnical education, study
with work in enterprises, on collective farms
and in special workshops; the number of
schools providing a secondary education for
people at work will be greatly increased.
Then it is necessary to extend and improve
the training of specialists with special higher
and secondary education. The Soviet schools
will produce people with an all-round edu-
cation, people who will observe socialist

4

principles, be acquainted with the funda-
mentals of science, and take part systema-
tically .in physical labor.

Continued growth of the productive forces
will be accompanied by perfecting the pro-
duction relations, and this will bring closer
the two forms of socialist property—collect-
ive-farm and public property. To achieve
this it is planned to develop the collective-
farm system, to extend inter-collective farm
contacts for the purpose of joint construc-
tion of industrial and other enterprises,
power stations, roads, hydro-technical instal-
lations, schools, clinics and hospitals, clubs,
etc.

The theses show that the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union is taking measures
to ensure the gradual abolition of the dis-
tinction between industry and agriculture,
between town and countryside and between
physical and mental labor. This is of enor-
mous importance and will give the peoples
now building socialism valuable experience
of communist construction. By this experi-
ence the Soviet people will enrich the trea-
sure-house of Marxism-Leninism.

The majestic scale and rate of growth
envisaged in the Seven-Year Plan are un-
thinkable in any capitalist country. For years
Western bourgeois politicians and scientists
sneered at the Soviet plans of socialist con-
struction. Then, when the achievements made
the scoffers look ridiculous, they did all in
their power to belittle the significance of the
brilliant success won by the Soviet Union
in building socialism. They used to say that
the Soviet First Five-Year Plan was sheer
utopianism. But in the years before the war
the Soviet people fulfilled two of these plans
with flying colors, both ahead of schedule.

Then, after the war, the enemies pre-
dicted that it would take the Soviet Union
a long time to make good the damage caus-
ed by the war. Yet it took less than five
years for the Soviet people to catch up
with and surpass the prewar level. The bour-
geois politicians and scientists then pro-
phesied that the Soviet Union would not be
able, in a brief space of time, to reach the
Western level of production. But when it
rapidly drew level with and then outstripped
the highly developed European capitalist
states in output of the basic industrial items,
they said that, although the volume of Soviet
production would, possibly, continue to rise,
nevertheless, in per capita output and level
of living standards, the USSR would never
catch up with the West. Today the Soviet
Seven-Year Plan makes it clear that this

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

time, too, the yes-men of the monopolies
will have to eat their words.

By the time the Seven-Year Plan is com-
pleted the Soviet Union will have outstripped
Britain and West Germany—the most deve-
loped capitalist countries in Europe — in
overall per capita output; and in per capita
output of a number of industrial and agri-
cultural items it will have surpassed the
United States. And in about five years after
1965 it will catch up with and outstrip the
United States in overall per capita output.
By this time the Soviet Union will have
taken first place in the world both for abso-
lute and per capita output, and its standard
of living will be the world’s highest. This
plan provides an opportunity for all to see
the vigor of the rapidly developing socialist
system, its incontestable superiority over the
decaying and decrepit capitalist system.

Socialism and capitalism are competing
now on a world scale. The socialist camp,
headed by the Soviet Union, is faced today
with the serious task of winning the maxi-
mum possible time in this competition. The
new Soviet plan shows that this peaceful
competition between socialism and capital-
ism has entered upon the decisive phase. As
the theses state, “the international signifi-
cance of the Seven-Year Plan is that its ful-
filment will further consolidate the might of
the world system of socialism.”

The enormous growth in the might of the
Soviet Union, the sweeping economic con-
struction in China and in the other social-
ist states, accompanied by Soviet aid and
mutual support, will result in the socialist
camp as a whole having absolute superiority
over the imperialist camp in the sphere of
production. With the completion of the
Seven-Year Plan the output of the socialist
camp will have risen from 30 to over 50
per cent of world output. In the competition
between the two world systems, this will
be a decisive victory for socialism, a victory
of historic significance.

There can be no doubt that the Seven-Year
Plan will add greatly to the strength of the
socialist camp. Since the Soviet Union is the
rallying point for the socialist countries, any
increase in its might means increased strength
for the entire socialist camp. Fulfilment of
the Plan will create even more favorable
conditions for the economic co-ordination and
mutual support of all the socialist countries,
will facilitate the general advance of economic .
and cultural construction in all of them. No
brazen provocation of the imperialist reac-
tionaries and no vile revisionist subversion

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW: 5

can break the monolithic unity of the socialist
camp, a unity based on identity of ideals,
interests and ideology. The peoples of the
socialist countries, naturally, are filled with
admiration for the majestic communist con-
struction undertaken by the Soviet people.

The Soviet Union has always been the
standard-bearer and staunch supporter of
peace, national independence and human pro-
gress all over the world, and its new plan,
with renewed force, inspires the peoples of
all countries. This grand plan for building
communism shows the working class and
working people in all countries the bright
future of humanity and strengthens their
belief in it. All countries and nations fighting
for or upholding their national independence
are well aware that the success of Soviet
construction is a severe blow to colonialism.
All who cherish peace appreciate that the
growth of the economic might and defensive
capacity of the Soviet Union makes it still
more difficult for the imperialists to unleash
a new war. A feature of our times is that,
thanks to the powerful alliance of socialist
forces headed by the Soviet Union with the
forces of national revolution and peace, it is
now possible to prevent the outbreak of war.
And should the imperialists, nevertheless, dare
to provoke war, this will but lead to the final
collapse of imperialism.

The Chinese people under the leadership
of their Communist Party are now engaged
in socialist construction on a grand scale.
With the Party’s general line of building so-
cialism our national economy is forging ahead
at an unprecedented rate. In building socialism
the Chinese people are receiving all-sided,

disinterested fraternal 2id from. the Soviet
Union. We are aided also by the other socialist
countries and by the world proletariat. With
the splendid example of the Soviet Union
before us, our people are building socialism
with far greater success. Learning from the
Soviet Union, thoroughly studying its experi-
ence of socialist and communist construction
and creatively applying this experience with
due regard to the speciflc features of our
country—such is the invariable policy of our
Party, the firm guarantee of the complete
victory of socialism in China.

Since the time of the October Revolution
the Soviet people, led by. their Communist
Party, have always been.in the van of the
world proletariat and the working people,
marching in the front ranks of. all the peoples.
Their glorious example attracts and inspires
these peoples. We Chinese Communists and
all our people are most happy to see that the
correct leadership exercised by the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union, headed by N. S. Khrushchov,
not only shows the Soviet people the straight
road to communism, it is also a big contribu-
tion to world peace and human progress. The
majestic program of communist construction
elaborated by the Central Committee of the
CPSU is one of the great documents of the
new history of mankind now being made by
the Soviet people and the working people of
the world. This program testifies to the irre-
sistible onward march of the new world, to
the steady growth and consolidation of the
forces of peace and socialism, to the fact that
under the Red banner of Marxism-Leninism
the peoples are going forward to ever greater
victories.

Janos KADAR

First Secretary, Central Committee, Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party

HERE can be no doubt that thanks to the
magnificent Seven-Year Plan of the
Soviet Union the ideas of socialism will regis-
ter impressive victories, will win over wide
sections of the working people throughout
the world.

In the first decade of this century Marxist
scientific socialism won over and drew round
it large numbers of people in many countries.
And for this reason even many enemies of
socialism could not oppose it directly—all
they could do was to question whether it could
be realized. With the rise of the land of the
Soviets and the social transformation carried

through there, which demonstrated to the
workers of the world that socialism was not
only a splendid idea but also fully realizable,
socialist ideas spread on a really colossal
scale.

In the early ’thirties, with the publication
and later the completion of the Soviet First
Five-Year Plan, a new discussion on socialism
took place, which was followed by a fresh
victory and the further spread of socialist
ideas. The imperialists and their press de-
scribed the first Soviet Plan as “a fantasy.”
What else could they say, when the entire
capitalist system was gripped by a profound

6

economic and political crisis. Even for the
developed capitalist countries those were the
years when millions of working people starv-
ed, while food was destroyed wholesale, when
great numbers of people suffered privations
and unemployment was rampant. Since the
very nature of the capitalist system precludes
planned control of industry, the capitalists
believed that planning was equally impossible
in the Soviet Union. But after the First Five-
Year Plan even the bourgeoisie realized that
this was a new, socialist system of society,
though a society in which, alas, there were
no capitalists, a system knowing neither ex-
ploitation of man by man nor economic an-
archy, neither crises nor chronic unemploy-
ment. Under this system, thanks to its planned
socialist economy, the entire country is
striding forward at an unprecedented rate.

The Soviet Union’s Seven-Year Plan affords
new possibilities for the workers of the world
to compare capitalism with socialism. This
comparison, and of this we have no doubt,
will further the spread of socialist ideas
among the masses. More brightly than the
sun, the new plan illustrates the irrefutable
truth that the Soviet Union—the world’s most
advanced, leading socialist state—is develop-
ing without crises and at an increasing rate.
The 80 per cent increase scheduled for indus-
trial production in a country so highly devel-
oped as the Soviet Union and the 70 per cent
growth of agricultural output testify that her
productive forces have developed at a rate
never previously known to humanity.

Fulfilment of this plan will lead not only
to a tremendous growth of the productive
forces, creating thereby the conditions for
the further building of communist society; it
will, at the same time, substantially raise the
material well-being and cultural level of Soviet
man.

The plan reaffirms that under socialism
there is no limit to expanding production, to
creating new material and spiritual values,
developing and perfecting man. Peaceful
creative labor, becoming more and more easy
physically, and through this labor a life of
increasing culture and happiness that is wor-
thy of man—these are the prospects which the
Seven-Year Plan opens to the people of the
Soviet Union, and indeed to all working man-
kind.

The Soviet people are firmly convinced that
they will make their new plan work. This is
also the conviction of their friends, among
whom are the people of Hungary. Convinced
of this, too, ate those who are as yet indiffer-

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

ent or hostile to the Soviet Union. Gone for-
ever are the days when imperialist propagan-
dists could dream of successfully ridiculing
or ‘xeeping silent about the Soviet Union and
its planned socialist economy. Today the top
bourgeois propagandists and politicians are
scared to death at the prospect of peaceful
competition. Not one of them even doubts
the feasibility of the new plan. Nor are things
any better with the newly-hatched medicine-
men of capitalism—the revisionists. Vain are
the attacks on the Soviet system, on the
system of People’s Democracy, by the bour-
geois and revisionist advocates of “people’s
capitalism” and “the third way.” Just as they
cannot fail to see the stars in the sky, they
are unable to deny the historic success of
the planned socialist economy.

What alternative can the capitalist advo-
cates suggest to the brilliant prospects opened
up by the Seven-Year Plan of the land of
socialism?

The fever of economic crisis (now called
“recession”), marketing difficulties and un-
employment are playing havoc with the capi-
talist countries—basically, with the masses
in these countries. This situation is aggravated
by the suffering caused to their peoples and
to all mankind by the champions of the cold
war, who are becoming more and more dis-
credited. The capitalist system has decayed
to the extent that today the U.S. bourgeois
press, preaching a suicidal thesis, proclaims
bigger war-orders and continuation of the
inhuman cold war as the sole panacea for
the crisis and unemployment. Ever-growing
numbers of people are pondering over the
prospects opened up by socialism and com-
paring them with those offered by imperialism.

Socialism and its magnificent program—the
Soviet Seven-Year Plan—offer the peoples the
prospect of peaceful labor, crisis-free econom-
ic development, disarmament, peaceful coex-
istence and competition; whereas imperialism
implies economic crises and unemployment,
the arms drive and the cold war, leading to
another world war.

For this reason we are deeply convinced
that, as the working people of the world
learn more about the Soviet plan, the com-
parison between the present and the future
of socialism and capitalism in our epoch will,
increasingly, be more favorable to socialism
and the Soviet Union, and that thanks to this,
socialist ideas will spread more and more
widely.

In a way, the Soviet Seven-Year Plan is a
plan for the socialist world system: not only

WORLD MARKXIST REVIEW 7

because Soviet economic advance adds io the
economic potential of the socialist system,
but also because it ensures greater scope for
the development of each socialist country.

At this point I would like to say a few
words about my country—the Hungarian
People’s Republic. In the process of consoli-
dating the forces of our republic, in healing
the wounds inflicted by the counter-revolu-
tionary putsch in 1956, we were greatly
supported not only by the enormous fraternal
help in other spheres, but also by the splendid
scientific achievements of the Soviet people—
the launching of the Sputniks and the major
discoveries in physics and chemistry. These
achievements were enthusiastically hailed by
Hungarian intellectuals and by the people as
a whole. Thanks to the all-round economic
ties between the Soviet Union and our repub-
lic, the tremendous Soviet economic advance
in the seven-year period will stimulate our
socialist construction and assist in the realiza-
tion of our socialist goals.

We are absolutely sure that the Soviet plan
—the grand plan of peace and socialism—
will enhance the consciousness of revolution-

ary socialists throughout the world. This plan,
a powerful weapon, provides those fighting
for peace and socialism in all countries with
a multitude of new arguments.

All mankind will benefit from the Soviet
plan becoming a reality. It is also of interest
to those sober-minded bourgeois representa-
tives in the West who, seeking a way out of
the imperialist-created deadlock, stand for
mutually advantageous economic relations and
peaceful coexistence of countries with differ-
ent social systems.

The international labor movement is vitally
concerned that the Seven-Year Plan be trans-
lated into life; its fulfilment will strengthen
the Soviet Union and the entire socialist camp
—in fact, the whole international labor move-
ment. Workers all over the world are vitally
interested—all of them personally, if we may
say so—in the fight for peace. Peace signifies
preserving the life and health of millions, the
opportunity for peaceful labor and the devel-
opment of all. Realization of the Seven-Year
Plan of the Soviet Union will light anew the
path of happiness and progress to the whole
world.

Stefan JENDRYCHOWSKI

Member, Political Bureau, Central Committee, Polish United Workers’ Party

HEN after the Soviet Union, the pioneer

~TYand of socialism;-new: socialist states

emerged at the end of the Second World War,
their mutual assistance and close co-operation
in all spheres of public life became the con-
crete embodiment of proletarian international-
ism at this new stage of history. The countries
of proletarian dictatorship are welded by
bonds of friendship and fraternity arising from
the immortal Marxist-Leninist idea expressed
in the slogan “Workers of All Lands, Unite!”
This idea is the basis of the community of
socialist countries, united by. a common sys-
tem and ideology.

The existence of the socialist camp multi-
plies, as a result of mutual assistance among
its member-countries, the forces of each,
facilitating and accelerating their building of
socialism. The constantly developing and ever-
improving division of labor within the socialist
system permits a more rational use of the
natural resources of each country, thus én-
hancing its economic strength. The unity of
the socialist camp does not preclude, on the
contrary, it is based on the complete sover-
eignty of each of its member-countries, on
equality in the relations between them.

In forming their community the socialist
countries were not guided by military consid-
erations. However, confronted with the ag-
gressive war pacts of the imperialists, they
were compelled to set up a mutual defensive
organization. Nevertheless, these countries,
above all the Soviet Union, have repeatedly
declared that they are against the division
of the world into hostile blocs, that they
stand for a collective security system that
would preclude military pacts. The socialist
camp has always advocated peaceful coex-
istence with the capitalist world, suggesting
that the question of the superiority of one
or the other system should be resolved in the
process of peaceful competition. Naturally,
until such time as certain imperialist quarters
abandon their “positions of strength” policy
in relation to the socialist states, their arms
drive and war preparations, the might of the
socialist camp will be the decisive factor for
the preservation of peace.

The Soviet-Polish Statement of November
10, 1958, says that “the indestructible unity
of the socialist camp and the strength of the
first and leading socialist state—the Soviet
Union—and of the Chinese People’s Republic

8

and all the countries engaged in socialist
construction are the firm guarantee of the
security of the socialist countries and a major
factor working against the threat of a new
war; they are of decisive importance for the
consolidation of peace and the peace forces.”

It goes without saying that the leading
socialist state—the Soviet Union—owing to
its experience in socialist construction and
its powerful economy and defense capacity,
is of decisive importance for the strength of
the socialist camp. The success of the Soviet
Union fortifies simultaneously the entire so-
cialist camp, thus promoting the cause of
peace and socialism all over the world.

For these reasons all friends of peace and
progress have welcomed with joy and pride
the theses for the Twenty-First Congress of
the CPSU, outlining the magnificent prospects
of economic and cultural growth for the
Soviet Union. These immediate and realizable
prospects gave bourgeois circles in the West
a real shock, driving them to seek, though
fruitlessly, an answer to the “Soviet economic
challenge.” They are fully aware that the
Seven-Year Plan is of decisive significance
for the victory of socialism in its peaceful
competition with capitalism; today there is
hardly anyone in the capitalist world who
doubts the realistic mature of the Plan. By
1965 the socialist countries will be producing
over half the world’s industria! output. With
fulfilment of the Plan, the Soviet Union will
be turning out more goods per capita than
are produced today in the highly developed
European countries. In terms of absolute
output of basic industrial goods the USSR
will, by that time, have outstripped and, in
output of other items, approached the present
U.S. level. In both gross and per capita agri-
cultural output it will have surpassed the
present U.S. level; and about five years later
it will have outstripped the United States
in all-round production per head of popula-
tion, thus reaching first place in the world.
This means that socialism will have won a
decisive victory in the peaceful competition.
As Lenin predicted, the day will come when
socialism will take the place of capitalism
because it ensures a higher productivity of
labor.

Today it is still difficult to appreciate in
full detail the tremendous impact which the
Soviet economic successes will have on world
development. But one thing is certain: they
will multiply the ranks of the fighters for
socialism and add immeasurably to the power
of attraction of socialism among the people
of the developed capitalist countries. These

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

successes will demonstrate to the workers in
the capitalist world, still under the influence
of bourgeois and Social-Democratic propa-
ganda, that socialism, and not capitalism,
ensures a high standard of living, a life unim-
perilled by crises and unemployment, without
exploitation of colonial and dependent nations,
an economy not dependent on the arms drive
and war. :

As to the socialist countries, for them the
Seven-Year Plan will mean a higher rate of
development. Co-operation among the socialist
countries—members of the Council of Mutual
Economic Aid—and also with those not on
the Council, is a powerful lever for their
general advance. This co-operation is founded
on the principles of proletarian international-
ism, fraternal assistance of the stronger and
more developed countries to those less strong
and less developed, and on each country doing
its bit for the common cause of consolidating
the socialist camp as a whole. Co-ordination
of the long-term economic plans, common
effort and mutual aid in resolving difficult
and complex problems, scientific and techno-
logical assistance, deliveries of complex
machinery and industrial raw material—all
contribute to accelerating the development of
the socialist countries. Of decisive importance
in this co-operation is the Soviet Union’s
economic strength. The Soviet Plan takes
into account the vital needs and wishes of
the socialist countries and thus creates favor-
able conditions for the realization of their
long-term economic plans.

Last but not least, the enormous economic
growth of the USSR greatly strengthens the
mighty defensive shield that safeguards the
socialist nations and all mankind against the
unleashing of a monstrous atomic war by
the more adventurous and aggressive imperial-
ist circles; and proves with the utmost clarity
that the “positions of strength” policy is both
unrealistic and futile. This does not mean,
however, that these circles will abandon their
gambles; on the contrary, it may be that we
shall witness some desperate adventures on
their part. But the adventurist policy is bound
to meet with the growing resistance of the
peoples and also of big sections of the bour-
geoisie who are aware of the fatal consequen-
ces of this policy. The Soviet plan gives added
strength to the idea of peaceful coexistence,
of peace among the nations.

There can be no doubt that if today the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union is able
to announce such far-reaching targets, it is
because of the rapid development of the pro-
ductive forces, flowing from the correct policy

oe Pm Sm

1-

‘ir

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 9

outlined by the Party at its Twentieth Con-
gress, from the creative application of Marx-
_ism-Leninism, and the harmony established
between the production relations and ithe
productive forces.

The same direction is followed by the other
Communist parties ‘in the socialist countries.
The Polish United Workers’ Party, at the
Eighth Plenary Meeting of its Central Com-
mittee, taking fuller account of the specific
conditions obtaining in the: country, launched
a new economic policy which has already
yielded good results in industry and agricul-
ture and made it possible to begin an economic
offensive. This is expressed in the directives
for Poland’s development covering the period

up to 1965, adopted by the twelfth meeting
of the Central Committee. These directives,
in keeping with our possibilities, provide for
notable progress in production and in the
well-being of the working people. They are
being discussed by hundreds of thousands of
Party members and non-Party people and will
be finally adopted at the Third Party Congress
next March.

Our Party, linked with indissoluble bonds
of solidarity to the Communist Party of the
Soviet Union, joyfully welcomes this grand
plan of communist construction and heartily
wishes our Soviet comrades complete success
in carrying it out for the good of peace and
socialism, for the good of all mankind. ©

Max REIMANN

First Secretary, Central Committee, Communist Party of Germany

NDER. the leadership of the Communist
Party. -and its Central Committee, the
international prestige and political influence
of the Soviet Union have grown considerably
since the Twentieth Congress. The’ Govern-
ment and peoples of the Soviet Union have
rendered a great service to the cause of peace.
At every grave and critical moment, each
time the imperialists sought to go over the
brink as, for instance, in the case of the Suez,
Middle East and Far Eastern crises, the. Soviet
Union, supported by all the peace forces and
in fraternal alliance with the other socialist
countries, curbed the reckless war gamblers
and saved humanity from the conflagration
of another great war.

The grand targets of the Seven-Year Plan
are peaceful construction at home and, abroad,
peaceful economic competition with the capi-
talist system. This is so obvious that it makes
nonsense of the imperialist propaganda about
“Soviet aggression.”

This Plan, which will be submitted to the
Twenty-First Congress of the CPSU for dis-
cussion and endorsement, will forever smash
the imperialists’ Big Lie about the Soviet
Union’s wanting war. Its fulfilment will infuse
new Strength into the peoples of the capitalist
countries, in the first place the peace forces
in the German Federal Republic in their fight
against German imperialism and militarism,
for the preservation and consolidation of peace
in Europe and for friendship between the
German and Soviet peoples.

Publication of the target figures coincided
with the outbreak of an economic crisis in

West Germany; production is being curtailed,
large numbers are affected by part-time unem-
ployment and dismissals. Consequently, for
the millions of workers in the capitalist coun-
tries the Plan, which envisages in the near
future a 35-40 hour week without any cut in
wages, is proof that the Soviet Union is con-
centrating all its energy on raising the stan-
dard of living of its people.

The Seven-Year Plan is a great plan of
peace. It lays bare the sinister machinations
of: the war maniacs and demonstrates to the
people of the world that the Soviet Union is
pursuing a firm policy of peace.

Another factor contributing to peace is the
real possibility of considerably expanding
trade between the Soviet Union and the capi-
talist world on the basis of a powerful growth
of production in the USSR. This cannot but
create a material interest among big sections
of the bourgeoisie in establishing good rela-
tions with the USSR.

The Soviet Government bases its relations
with capitalist countries on the Leninist prin-
ciples of peaceful coexistence, on the concept
that for an entire period of history the social-
ist and capitalist countries are bound to
coexist. The more widely this is recognized
in capitalist countries, the more bourgeois
politicians become convinced that the wheel
of history cannot be turned back, and soberly
face up to the fact of the existence of the
Soviet Union—the greater will be the chances
of putting an end to war incitement against
the Soviet Union.

10

The Seven-Year Plan provides the whole
world with irrefutable proof of the boundless
vitality of the socialist system.

We are living in the historic epoch of the
transition from capitalism to socialism. The
stronger world socialism is, the greater the
guarantees of peace. The struggle for inde-
pendence waged by the peoples still languish-
ing under the yoke of imperialism, or who
have just thrown off this yoke, finds powerful
support in the Soviet Union. The imperialists,
as everybody knows, have always used armed

force against the attempts of the enslaved ,

peoples to gain freedom.

Today, however, the situation is different.

The Soviet Union is helping countries such
as India, Indonesia, the United Arab Republic
and others to follow the path of independence.
This applies in equal measure to both the
political independence of these countries and
their economic development.

With Soviet assistance India is building
an iron and steel plant, and Egypt — the
Aswan dam.

The plan for 1959-65 enormously increases
the possibility of aiding the peace-loving
nations that have taken the road of indepen-
dence. In this way the camp of peace becomes
stronger, while the opportunities at the dis-
posal of the imperialists for unleashing preda-
tory war greatly diminish.

As the Soviet people fulfil the Plan and thus
create the material and technical base of
communism, Soviet society will enter a new
stage—that of communist construction on all
fronts. The material and cultural needs of the
Soviet people are being met more fully.

This bright prospect of a secure and happy
life greatly stimulates the peoples, exhausted

WORLD MARXIST. REVIEW

by wars, crises, want and oppression, to step
up the struggle against their oppressors.

The Soviet Union has rendered invaluable
aid to the socialist countries. With the aid
and support of the USSR and the other social-
ist states, the working people of the German
Democratic Republic are carrying out the
grand plans charted at the Fifth Congress of
the Socialist Unity Party.

The superiority of the first worker-peasant
state on German soil over the social system
in the Federal Republic, ruled by monopoly
capital, is revealed with ever greater clarity.

On their part, the working people of West
Germany are intensifying their struggle for
peace, democracy, social progress and the
regeneration of Germany as a peace-loving
and democratic state.

The NATO countries are still refusing to
normalize their relations with the German
Democratic Republic and the other People’s
Democracies. But the further advance and
consolidation of these countries will create
the real prerequisites for overcoming this
abnormal situation. The prospect which the
plan opens up before the Soviet Union adds
enormously to the importance of peaceful
proposals such as the Rapacki Plan.

The international prestige of the German
Democratic Republic, linked by bonds of
friendship to the USSR, will also grow. The
GDR will be able much more fully to play its
part as a factor for peace in Europe.

Fulfilment of the Seven-Year Plan will ac-
celerate the rate of development of the social-
ist states and further alter the balance of
forces between the socialist and capitalist
countries in favor of the former.

Jacques DUCLOS

Secretary of the Central Committee, Communist Party of France

HE announcement of the Seven-Year Plan
which will be discussed at the forthcom-
ing Twenty-First Congress of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union was made at the
height of the elections to the new French
National Assembly. Nevertheless, the press
and radio were unable to remain silent about
the exceptional importance of the plan.
“Economic challenge to the Western

world!”—such were the general headlines of
the reports and comments, all of which re-
flected surprise and concern.

The figures made an impression, and the
defenders of the notorious ‘free world” con-
ceal neither their disappointment nor their
alarm over the significant progress achieved
by the USSR and the prospects now opening
up. On November 16 Le Monde commented:
“It would be a mistake to underestimate the
interest which promises of this kind evoke
outside the USSR.” The same newspaper ex-
presses the fear aroused in the West by “the
propaganda which already now draws a paral-
lel between the steady economic growth of

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW ll

the Soviet Union and the recession in the
American economy.”

Noteworthy in this respect is the fact that,
with the exception of the communist and
democratic press, the newspapers had not a
word to say about the contrast between the
giant strides made by the Soviet economy and
the alarming slump symptoms in the French
economy. Actually, according to official sta-
tistics, the purchasing power of nearly one
million French working people has declined,
in some cases very considerably, in the past
few weeks as a result of short-time work. It
is understandable in these circumstances that
the de Gaulle-Soustelle information service
is not over-eager to announce that in the
USSR they will have the shortest working
hours in the world and by 1965 real incomes
of the workers and other employees will have
risen by 40 per cent.

As for the draft theses on strengthening
contact between school and life and the fur-
ther development of the Soviet educational
system, they were met with complete silence.
The reason is simple, because exactly at this
time some 20,000 students, lecturers, labora-
tory heads and assistants of the natural and
exact sciences faculty of the University of
Paris were protesting that half of them could
not find accommodation either in the lecture
halls or in the laboratories; the de Gaulle
Government has refused credit for a new
building for the faculty and has even reduced
allocations for public education and research.

The reactionaries fear the truth about the
Soviet Union, whose success throws into even
bolder relief both the inadequate allocations
for education, which affects the intellectuals,
and the declining standard of living of the
French working class. There is every reason
tc believe that the contrast between the Soviet
Union which, with remarkable enthusiasm, is
building communist society, and France, now
caught in the whirlpool of nationalism and
reaction, will become even more striking.

With the help of the Socialist leaders, the
forces of fascism and reaction staged par-
liamentary elections in France on November
23 and 30, a continuation of the September
28 plebiscite that brought success to one-man
rule. The division in the ranks of the working-
class and democratic forces, for which grave
responsibility rests with the Socialist leaders,
and the new electoral system introduced by
de Gaulle, not only with the support but also
at the request of Guy Mollet, disastrously
affected the outcome of the elections.

As a result, reactionary and fascist deputies
are in the majority in the new National

Assembly. The Communist Party, the first
party in France, given an:honest distribution
of seats, would have had 88 seats, whereas it
has but 10. The Socialists, who previously had
95 seats, have only 40. This shows that their
policy of supporting the reactionaries and
fascists does not pay. The biggest group in
Parliament is now the “Union of the New
Republic” (UNR), which includes former RPF
leaders, such as Soustelle and Roger Frey,
notorious fascists like Biaggi and Delbecque,
and also the colonels who took part in the
Algerian coup. This Party, which obtained
200,000 fewer votes than the Communists, has
188 seats, which means that a Communist
deputy represents 400,000 electors, the UNR
deputy—only 20,000.

The electoral swindle shows that the ruling
circles of the French bourgeoisie intend to
prosecute and intensify the war in Algeria, to
go ahead with their reactionary and anti-social
policy.

Just before the enactment of the Common
Market agreement, in which France is a par-
ticipant, Guy Mollet and other Socialist lead-
ers lauded the merits of “this vast market
without frontiers” which, it is alleged, “will
improve the conditions of the workers, and
make it possible to achieve equality in the
course of progress.” The preparations for the
Market have already accelerated the concen-
tration of capital and the conclusion of many
agreements, industrial and financial, between
the French and West’ German monopolies.
Agreements have been concluded with a view
to ensuring higher profits for the industrial
and financial barons.of France, West Germany
and Italy through the ‘maximum utilization of
the Common Market. The workers are .alarm-
ed, and understandably so, at the growing
unemployment in some industries, the inten-
sified exploitation and prospect of serious
encroachments on their social gains.

France’s economic lag compared with West
Germany, which has much stronger positions
in this sphere; may become even more pro-
nounced. In foreign policy this backwardness
is manifest in the attempts to create a Paris-
Bonn axis which will bring with it French
dependence on the German imperialists just
as in its day the Berlin-Rome axis secured
the superiority of Hitler Germany. The new
axis will mean much greater support by the
French reactionaries for the revenge-seeking
designs of the German militarists. This was
the purpose (to say nothing of de Gaulle’s
request for a loan to finance the war in AI-
geria) of the de Gaulle-Adenauer talks.

12

In cohtrast:to these actions of the imperial-
ists, who. simultaneously: are both allies and
rivals, the Soviet Union tirelessly pursues
the wise policy of peaceful coexistence and
competition. It is perfectly obvious that de-
spite the silence and falsification on the part
of the: official and semi-official propaganda,
it is now much more difficult to conceal from
our people the true meaning of the peace
policy of the Soviet Union.

“The USSR proposes to the capitalist world
“not .competition: in armaments but economic
competition:.with a view to increasing the
output of ihe civilian industries, and ensuring
better conditions for the people. This compe-
tition, a nightmare for the capitalists, will
show which of the two systems—socialist or
capitalist—is. better. For years the govern-
ments of capitalist countries have been say-
ing that. the Soviet Union, relying on its
armed strength, aspires to world domination.
This is an impudent lie! Revolutions are not
exported. Every nation determines its own
destiny, and it is becoming increasingly dif-
ficult, so eloquent are the facts, to cast doubts
oni the Soviet Union’s will for peace.

As we see, the Soviet Union is not issuing
a challenge to, war, and for this very reason
the’ advocatés ‘of’ the old system of capitalist
exploitation dread even to speak about the
progress made by the USSR. But, aware that
truth will out, they try to capitalize on the
grand ‘Victories of the socialist countries. It
often happens that. in the newsreels, on the
radio ‘and ‘TV, official propagandists refer to
the successes of the Soviet Union (and of
People’s China) , extol the efforts of the Soviet
and Chinese people, and appeal to French men
and women “to draw inspiration from. their
example,” and raise productivity. But these

‘WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

gentlemen forget about one fundamental dif-
ference, namely, that in a socialist country
the working people’s every effort is exerted
to raise the living-standard of society as a
whole, whereas in a country dominated by
reaction and fascism the workers toil and
moil to bring grist to the mills of the capi-
talist monopolies.

This is accompanied by ever-increasing en-
croachments on democratic freedoms and the
virtual abolition of democracy and the repre-
sentative system, which the working people
and all democrats must defend.

The choice confronting the people of France
today is not between fascism and communism.
They must, step by step, uphold the demo-
cratic freedoms which are now imperiled. The
Communist Party, the main bastion barring
the way of the reactionary and fascist of-
fensive, is working to rally all forces capable
of re-establishing and renovating democracy.

Thé' grand victories won by the USSR in
building communist society and its efforts for
the triumph of the policy of peaceful co-
existence and competition will, without doubt,
deliver a shattering blow to the anti-Com-
munist and anti-Soviet ideas circulated with
a’ view to dividing the working-class and de-
mocratic forces. These victories will help us
to regain the working people who have been
misled by the nvolicv of the Socialist leaders;
these victories will evoke enthusiasm among
millions of workers and peasants, and sup-
porters of the republic, irrespective of their
party affiliation. The Communist Party calls
them to unity and action in order to curb and
rebuff the evil forces of reaction, to ensure
the triumph of a policy that will make France
free and peace-loving, and restore her spirit-
ual strength and national grandeur.

“William Z. FOSTER

Honorary Chairman of the Communist Party of the U.S.A.

N November 14, 1958, the world was

astonished by the theses of Premier
Nikita Khrushchov’s report on the unprece-
dented Seven-Year Economic Plan of the So-
viet Union for the years 1959-1965.

The capitalists are agasp at the realization,
no matter how much they hate to admit it,
thatthe Soviet Union and the rest of the
socialist camp represent a totally different
kind of economic and political organization,
one'that is vastly superior.

‘The economic figures of the Soviet Seven-
Year Plan go far beyond anything ever pro-

duced by the capitalist countries, including
their leader, the United States of America.
For many years the Soviet Union has been
increasing its industrial output at a much
more rapid rate than the United States. From
1928 to 1957 the average annual increase in
industrial output of the two countries was
3.6 per cent for the USA and 11.5 per cent
for the USSR. That is over three times as
fast a rate of growth for the Soviet Union.
According to People’s Capitalism by J. M.
Buish, “this is a catastrophic relative failure
for the United States.”

WORLD MARXIST ' REVIEW Kr

The capitalists are greatly alarmed at the
startling goals of the new Seven-Year Plan.
We may be sure that, if they can, they will
take desperate steps to block the plan. Their
alarm is doubly acute because their own sys-
tem has been laboring along in several de-
pressions during the last few years and has
by no means been able to get out of its
latest one as yet.

Everybody knows that the Soviet. Union
will make good on the striking figures of its
new Seven-Year Plan. The bourgeoisie also
know that the People’s Democracies of Asia
and Europe will do the same. China, for
example, after 25 years of constant imperial-
ist and civil war and many years of economic
and political blockades by the capitalist world,
is making a spectacular job of building her
industries.

The European People’s Democracies have
similar striking figures. Total industrial pro-
duction in these countries was in 1957 ap-
proximately three and a half times that of
prewar.

Not only is the speed with which the Soviet
Union and the People’s Democracies are build-
ing their industries astonishing, it is even
more amazing when the severe man-made dif-
ficulties that are placed in the way of the
industrialization of the Soviet Union by the
capitalist powers, particularly the United
States, are taken into consideration. The USA,
the principal imperialist country, assumes the
right to interfere in the internal affairs of
other countries and to block their industriali-
zation in the event of its running counter to
American interests.

Ever since the Soviet Republic was founded,
it has had to contend with the vicious and
often murderous industrial opposition of the
United States. To stifle the growth of Soviet
industries the imperialists used the most cal-
lous and destructive methods of the political
and economic blockade. But the Soviet indus-
try was built despite this unscrupulous op-
position.

The complete story of Soviet industriali-
zation is one of the untold epics of the Rus-
sian revolution. In its historic struggle for a
new society the Soviet working class over-
came the tremendous economic difficulties
caused by World War II. With the aid of
their socialist comrades and the democratic
forces of the world they bore the brunt of
the struggle against Nazism and, to the

amazement of every bourgeois military ex-
pert in the world, smashed Hitler. Herbert
Hoover and Harry Truman openly displayed
their disappointment that the Soviet Union

had come out so clearly a victor in the war.
The Russians had practically defeated the
Hitler armies before the niggardly American
lendlease arrived. The Soviet people won the
war at the cost of millions of lives and with
many industrial enterprises wiped: out.

The United States took advantage of the
damage to Soviet industry, and of their own
monopoly of the atom bomb, and tried. to
establish Wall Street’s domination through-
out the world. In this effort they were frus-
trated, however, by the unparalleled rebuild-
ing of the Soviet economic system: ;

The Soviet people put an end to the atom-
bomb monopoly and generally built their
mighty industry, military technique .and armed
forces to the point where the warmakers of
Wall Street did not dare precipitate a gen-
eral war. In a few years after World War
II the Soviet Union had doubled the industrial
output of the prewar years. This indicates
far greater industrial progress than’ that ever
made by any capitalist nation.

The Seven-Year Plan marks the beginning
of communist construction on all fronts. With
the experience of the past as our guide it is
certain that the Soviet Union, despite capi-
talist opposition and sabotage, will more than
fulfil the Seven-Year Plan by the expiration
date. This will usher in a new era in the
world and a new and better relationship of
international forces.

During the past generation socialism hds
been rapidly overtaking production in the
capitalist countries and this process will come
to a climax at the end-of the Seven-Year
Plan. We can be certain that we will’ be rapid-
ly travelling into the new world seven years
from now. The success of the plan will, in
particular, stimulate the growth of socialism
in every respect. Not only will it mean. the
rapid advancement of all the socialist coun-
tries—the Soviet Union, China, Czechoslo-
vakia, Poland, etc. — the national-liberation
struggle will likewise be stimulated by the
growth of socialism.

Not the least, the related wing of the peo-
ples’ movements, namely the trade union and
other mass democratic forces in the capitalist
countries, will also feel the impulse of the
new and stronger socialist spirit abroad in
the world. Central in all this will be the pro-
gress made by the socialist countries along
the road to communism. Completion of the
Seven-Year Plan will make the whole world
see the superiority of socialism over capi-
talism.

Another vital thing that we may expect is
that the revisionists will be increasingly de-

14

feated by the Communists. Revisionism is the
modern curse of the labor movement, a stake
of the imperialists to retain their domination.
It must be resolutely combated. Marxism-
Leninism will even more emphatically win its
way to the leadership of the masses fighting
for emancipation.

The tremendous economic and _ political
growth on a world scale centering around the
economic program of the next seven years,
will be of major international significance,
and will be achieved provided the imperialists
are prevented from launching another world
war. Peaceful coexistence of the two systems
must be resolutely fought for by the socialist
preservation of peace. For it is up to the
socialist forces of the world to avert war.
The capitalists who oppose them are natural
supporters of war. Never were war prepara-
tions more profitable for the exploiters than
at the present time—the United States is now
spending 50 billion dollars a year on arma-
ment. Why should the capitalists abolish such
a rich source of profits? The Communist-led
nations and the peoples of the world, on the

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

other hand, reap no profit whatever, nothing
but monumental losses and disaster from war
and excessive armaments, and they have every
reason to do away with mass slaughter. The
success of the Seven-Year Plan will be a long
stride in this direction.

The Seven-Year Plan will enormously fur-
ther the abolition of a whole series of major
problems which are being progressively solved
by the Communist forces on a world scale
ever since the Russian revolution—such ulcers
in the life of society as unemployment, pov-
erty, illiteracy, etc. Already, the death-blow
has been struck to these scourges in the so-
cialist countries, and the impact of the blow
is felt throughout capitalism. By the time of
the victorious completion of the Seven-Year
Plan, further long strides will have been made
in the historic work of freeing mankind from
the dreadful hangovers of past ignorance and
exploitation. We can be sure, too, that the
effect of this work will spread with irresist-
ible force throughout the entire capitalist
world, despite the employer resistance.

Victorio CODOVILLA

Secretary of the Central Committee, Communist Party of Argentina

HE theses of Khrushchov’s report to the

Twenty-First Congress of the CPSU have
produced a big impression on the Latin Ame-
rican peoples, including the people of Argen-
tina.

The Seven-Year Plan, which will consolidate
and develop the socialist system and which
inaugurates the building of communist society,
has aroused the same enthusiasm among the
people in the capitalist world as the launch-
ing of the Sputniks. This is explained by the
deepening economic crisis, the deterioration
in living and cultural standards and the threat
of war, all of which impel the working people
to turn their eyes more and more to the
socialist camp in search of an answer to the
question: how to find a way out?

The socialist countries, knowing neither up-
heavals nor economic crises, are advancing
with giant strides and steadily improving the
conditions of their people; not interested in
predatory wars, they are leading the world-
wide movement against war and for peace
between all nations, both big and small. That
is why, when posing the question, what is
the way out, there can be but one answer
and that is—the path blazed by the glorious
Russian revolution forty-one years ago.

The impact of the Seven-Year Plan on the
working people and other strata in Latin
America is all the greater in view of the fact
that while their conditions are steadily wor-
sening, the Soviet program presents the pic-
ture of a bright future for the nations that
have thrown off the imperialist yoke and
capitalist exploitation.

The Latin American peoples (whose life is
becoming worse and worse) cannot but be
delighted with the news that the Soviet
Union’s national income will rise by 62-65
per cent in the space of seven years and
that because of the just distribution of the
social product under socialism, incomes of
workers, office employees and peasants will
go up by 40 per cent. We cannot hide our
admiration when we learn that the working
day will be reduced to 6-7 hours, that the
Soviet people will have two free days a
week without any reduction in wages and
that the number of factory, office and profes-
sional workers will rise by 21 per cent, while
in our countries the working day is being
extended and unemployment is growing.

Farm output in the Soviet Union is schedul-
ed to rise 1.7 times, whereas in Latin America
it is steadily declining. Public consumption

a Sa er See eee wae VS eS ee

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 15

will show an increase of 60-63 per cent, while
in our countries it is falling, in many cases
even to the lowest possible level.

The Latin American peoples see that the
capitalist world is in the grip of a deep eco-
nomic crisis, developing against the back-
ground of the crisis of the entire capitalist
system; the socialist camp, meanwhile, ex-
periencing no crises, aspires to the highest
level of production and social welfare. The
worst thing is that the United States and
Britain are “exporting” their crisis to Latin
America, foisting its consequences onto the
shoulders of the masses. This worsens the
already bad conditions and results in soaring
prices and constantly growing unemployment.
That is why the Seven-Year Plan enhances
the militant spirit of our peoples in their
struggles against imperialist domination.

Our people know that the growth of pro-
duction in the Soviet Unior will raise not
only material and cultural stindards, it will
add considerably also to the reserve stocks
which can be channeled to the economically
underdeveloped countries, such as ours, and
this will further the popular struggle for na-
tional and social liberation.

Until recently there were people who sin-
cerely believed that our countries could not
overcome their dependence on the big imperi-
alist powers, especially the United States.
They thought that these states alone, by vir-
tue of their considerable industrial develop-
ment, could purchase our products and pro-
vide us with everything needed for our devel-
opment. But as Latin American trade with
the Soviet Union and other socialist countries
expanded, and especially now, with the pub-
lication of the Seven-Year Plan, these people
appreciate that there is no need to remain
hemmed-in by imperialist economic encircle-
ment, that this encirclement can be broken by
trading with the powerful socialist countries
led by the Soviet Union.

Some sections of the small and middle
bourgeoisie tend to submit to the demands
of the U.S. monopolies, hoping to get loans
from the United States, which would help our
countries resolve the acute economic and so-
cial problems. Bitter experience has shown,
however, that U.S. imperialism demands much
but gives next to nothing.

An instructive example in this respect is
Argentina—one of the most capitalistically
developed of the Latin American countries,
which is now experiencing a profound eco-
nomic crisis owing to increasing dependence
on imperialism, above all on the United States.
In the guise of “helping” our country to get

over the crisis, the U.S. monopolies are med-
dling more and more in our economic and
political affairs. The International Monetary
Fund promises “aid” on terms that run coun-
ter to the interests, dignity and sovereignty of
our country. It demands that Argentina agree
to Fund control over the greater part of her
oil, power and metallurgical industries, to de-
nationalize rail transport and other state-own-
ed enterprises, cut bank credits to the national
industry and trade, devalue the peso and
freeze wages, launch repression against the
working-class and peasant movements, set up
a government-controlled trade union center,
place military bases at the disposal of the
imperialists and take part in the U.S. policy
of military gambles. The IMF insists either
that the present government accept these
terms or that it be replaced by an openly
dictatorial military or semi-military govern-
ment.

It is precisely this undisguised Anglo-Ame-
rican interference in the domestic affairs of
Argentina that in the long run seriously af-
fects her economy and causes political and
public anxiety. This interference gives rise
to strikes and mass struggles, while the gov-
ernment, on order of the U.S. imperialists
and their flunkeys, retaliates by declaring
martial law. Lenin’s words to the effect that
imperialism means reaction all along the line
are confirmed once again.

That is why the idea that the economic
crisis can and must be overcome by breaking
the imperialist encirclement and extending
trade with the socialist countries is not only
cherished by the working class, peasants and
other sections of the working people, it is
also winning the support of the small and
middle bourgeoisie.

It was not accidental that the Argentina-
USSR trade agreement aroused great enthu-
siasm among the peoples and keen interest
among the ruling circles of the Latin American
countries. This is a treaty of a new type.

All agreements with the U.S. monopolies,
concluded or likely to be concluded, are and
will be extortionate agreements. They are
aimed at plundering the national wealth and
exploiting the peoples. That is why they have
encountered and will continue to encounter
an: increasingly energetic rebuff on the part
of all patriots.

Meanwhile, the treaty recently signed in
Moscow by the government delegation headed
by Liseaga, Deputy to the National Congress,
has been warmly approved by all patriots and
democrats in Argentina and other Latin Ame-
rican countries (the Soviet Union undertakes

16

to supply Argentina with oil equipment to the
value of $100 million, to be paid over ten
years at an interest of 2.5 per cent annually,
and no currency will be required to cover
the credit). This treaty shows once again that
in the fight for freedom and indevendence
our countries can bank on the disinterested
aid of the socialist camp.

Extension of trade and cultural relations
between Latin America and the Soviet Union,
People’s China and other socialist countries
is beneficial because the latter are developing
along. peaceful lines, while the U.S. economy
is a war economy.

Another reason why our peoples have en-
thusiastically welcomed the Seven-Year Plan
is that it is based on the principle of peace-
ful competition between the socialist and
capitalist camps, so that when the targets of
the Plan become a reality this will be the best
contribution to peace.

Fulfilment of this Plan will stimulate the
growing national-liberation and social move-
ments in Latin America. Conditions are ripe
in our countries for breaking the power of
the ruling circles that uphold the interests of
the oligarchy, big capital and foreign mono-
polies; and for effecting radical changes in
economic, political and public life. Despite
the contradictory developments, the forces of
democracy, progress, national independence
and peace are gaining strength. while the
positions of the landed oligarchy and the big
capitalists, allies of the foreign monopolies,
especially North American, are becoming
weaker.

A_ new factor in our countries is that the
peoples now understand that a democratic
victory won during the elections under the

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

leadership of the small and middle bourgeois
elements cannot be consolidated without the
working class playing an active part in po-
litical life. After a few revolutionary gestures
these elements retreat under the pressure of
the landed oligarchy, big capital and the im-
perialist monopolies. Argentina is a classical
example in this respect.

So, the idea of the need for broad national-
democratic fronts and democratic coalition
governments has been affirmed among the
Latin American peoples. This has become pos-
sible due to the fact that the Communist
parties in Latin America have become, or are
becoming, mass parties and, repressions not-
withstanding, have taken root among the
working masses as the guiding, organizing and
leading force of the bloc rallying the broad
strata of the people, including the national
bourgeoisie opposed to the imperialists, for
an agrarian and anti-imperialist revolution.

The victorious socialist construction under-
taken by the Soviet people and their gradual
transition to communism, thanks to unswerv-
ing implementation of the principles of prole-
tarian internationalism and fidelity to Marx-
ism-Leninism, signify another setback for the
revisionists—the authors of “national com-
munism.” These elements, represented most
glaringly by the Yugoslav revisionists, pursue
a policy which leads not to socialism but to
restoration of capitalism.

Experience has shown that only by trans-
lating the Marxist-Leninist teaching into life,
as is done by the glorious CPSU and the
other Communist and Workers’ parties, can
the common goal be attained—victory in the
struggle for national and social liberation, for
socialism and communism.

Luiz Carlos PRESTES

General Secretary of the Central Committee, Communist Party of Brazil

HE Seven-Year Plan of communist con-

struction has had profound repercussions
in the Latin American countries. The grand
success achieved in building socialism in the
USSR has, naturally, aroused real enthusiasm
both in Brazil and in the other countries of
our continent. This is expressed in the ad-
miration with which the numerous Brazilian
M.P.s, scientists, artists and sportsmen who
in recent years have visited the Soviet Union
speak of it, and also in the spontaneous mani-
festations of welcome for the Soviet people
who have visited us. Although there are no
diplomatic relations between our countries,

the Brazilian and Soviet people have found
common ground in the joint struggle for world
peace, in initiating and extending cultural ex-
changes. And the more success the Soviet
Union achieves in developing its economy, sci-
ence, technology and culture, the more effec-
tive will that rapprochement be.
Consequently the recently published theses
of the report to be delivered at the Twenty-
First Party Congress will add to the interest
in Soviet achievements. In Brazil people are
following this progress with keen interest.
Brazil, like other Latin American countries,
is still an underdeveloped country. It yearns

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 17

for progress and prosperity. Now we are wit-
nessing an awakening national consciousness
which insists on economic development, indus-
trialization and national liberation. We are in
dire need of technological and financial aid,
of modern industrial equipment. All this is
still monopolized by the North Americans,
who use their economic superiority to plunder
our natural wealth and keep our country in
political subjugation.

Thus, there are sharpening contradictions
between the people of Brazil and the U.S.
imperialists and their stooges. As long as these
contradictions remain unsolved, we will suf-
fer from low prices for our exports and de-
preciation of our currency (last year, within
a few months the cruzeiro declined by one
half). In conditions of the general crisis of
capitalism and the present economic crisis in
the United States, the imperialist drive against
our national interests acquires an open and
cynical character. Because of pressure from
the International Monetary Fund there is a
widening gap between what we get for our
exports and what we pay for our imports
from the United States. U.S. investors are de-
manding further privileges and ‘guarantees’
for themselves, and the renouncing of Bra-
zilian national investment in the _ basic
branches of the economy. At the same time
they are demanding that measures be taken
against the working class and to the detriment
of the entire nation.

The direct result of this is a worsening of
the conditions of the working people, a rising
cost of living and lowering of the already
miserable real wages.

The acute internal contradictions mae ne-
cessary an independent solution of the prob-
lem of developing the national economy. It
is necessary to extend the foreign market. The
bleeding of our country, expressed in the
pumping out of profits, without any control,
must be ended. The situation in Brazil is, in
one way or another, typical of all the Latin
American countries. N. S. Khrushchov was
quite correct when he said in a recent inter-
view with the Brazilian journalist Murillo Mar-
roquin that “for decades the American, British
and other foreign monopolies, like giant leech-
es, have been clinging to the living body of
Latin America, greedily sucking dry and plun-
dering its natural wealth, ruthlessly exploiting
its peoples, distorting their economies and
retarding their independent development.”

Even the ruling classes in Brazil seek a way
out of this situation which cannot continue
forever. An attempt in this direction was made

by President Juscelino Kubitchek, when he
proclaimed the ‘“‘pan-American operation,” ex-
pressing the desire for economic development,
to abolish the semi-colonial status and enable
our countries to have an equal say in inter-
national affairs. This initiative, even though
it did not go beyond the confines of obedience
to the United States, suffered complete fiasco.
Nor did the dramatic warning sounded by
August Frederico Schmidt, the Brazilian dele-
gate in the “Committee of 21” in Washington,
to the effect that Latin America would be
forced to seek more trade with the Soviet
Union and People’s China unless Washington
rendered substantial aid to its Southern neigh-
bors, have any effect on the U.S. representa-
tives.

The people of Brazil, however, like the
other nations of Latin America, are fully de-
termined to carry on their fight for an inde-
pendent national economy, and are seeking
new paths which would mean a complete
break with the constant dependence on U.S.
imperialism. These aims are supported by Os-
waldo Aranha, former Minister of Foreign
Affairs, and others who in the press and in
public lectures have spoken in favor of direct
business contacts between Brazil and the
Soviet Union; by Assis Chateaubriand, Brazili-
an Ambassador to London, who wants closer
ties with the East European countries, and
who in pursuit of this aim visited Prague.

These politicians realize that the socialist
countries could be a vast market for our
exports, that they could supply, on favorable
terms, the machinery and equipment which
now eat up our scanty currency reserves.
That is why the O Cruzeiro interview with
N. S. Khrushchov met with a wide response.
Khrushchov reaffirmed that the Soviet Gov-
ernment was prepared to aid the industriali-
zation of Brazil by supplying us with ma-
chinery and equipment, training Brazilian spe-
cialists in the USSR and giving us the benefit
of its rich technological experience.

We know that all this is feasible, that we
are not alone in the struggle which the Latin
American nations are waging agiinst back-
wardness and for economic emancipation. The
Soviet Union’s all-round support to all peo-
ples striving for their liberation is meeting
with growing sympathy in our countries. Peo-
ple are keenly interested in the fact that the
Soviet Union is building an iron and steel
plant in India which, when completed, will
turn out 2.5 million tons of steel a year, and
this without any shares in capital, profits or
management, without any strings, either eco-

18

nomic or political, in other words, the reverse
of the practice of other countries. We have
been favorably impressed by the USSR-Egypt
agreement on the construction of the Aswan
dam, the Soviet Union granting a credit of
400 million roubles at very low interest to
be paid off over a long period, and this again
with no strings. We know that similar agree-
ments have been concluded with other Asian
and African countries, and recently with Ar-
gentina, not to mention the fraternal aid giv-
en by the Soviet Union to the People’s De-
mocracies building socialism, and especially
to the industrialization program of the Chinese
People’s Republic. Hence, when the Soviet
Union, confident in its strength, in the selfless
and valiant labor of its people, launches an-
other majestic plan of economic development,
this evokes confidence in the USSR not only
on the part of the working people and intellec-
tuals of our countries, but also on the part
of the national bourgeoisie and groups of
capitalists and landlords whose interests con-
flict with U.S. imperialism.

Foreign trade can become the cornerstone
of a fruitful policy of rapprochement between
our country and the Soviet Union. At present
our foreign trade is virtually monopolized by
the United States. This is one of the most
striking manifestations of the North American
parasitism in our economic life. Americans
exercise their monopoly through U.S. domi-
nation of the world market in coffee, sugar,
cocoa, cotton and other products, which ac-
count for 80 to 90 per cent of our traditional
exports, and an even greater percentage of
other agricultural produce. Over half of our
coffee, sugar and cotton exports, our chief

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

sources of foreign currency, go to the United
States. Abolition of this monopoly would be
most beneficial to our entire economic ac-
tivity.

Hence we place particularly big hopes on
extending the market for our produce, espe-
cially when a new area with a population of
over 900 million, including the USSR and
China, is opening before us. Hence the pro-
spects which we see in the Seven-Year Plan,
summed up in the theses. In view of the
realization of the previous economic plans
which transformed the Soviet Union into a
leading world power, no one doubts that the
targets of the new Plan, bold though they
are, will become a reality. This Plan will
greatly enhance the might of the world’s first
socialist state, and, through an unprecedented
rise in the national income and in purchasing
power, will create better conditions for the
people.

In this way the Soviet Union will have still
greater facilities for rendering aid to the
underdeveloped countries, who repose great
hopes in it. Brazil is one of those countries.
We ardently want to get rid of our poverty
and backwardness, the main result of our eco-
nomic dependence on the U.S. monopolies.

Brazil’s existence as a free and sovereign
nation imperatively requires that it develop
economically. We are confident that the theses
of N. S. Khrushchov’s report to the Twenty-
First Congress of the CPSU will render an-
other great service to the progressive forces
in Brazil and other Latin American countries,
in the fight for their noble aims, for the
realization of their dream of freedom, pro-
gress and prosperity.

The Defense of Democratic Gains
Is a Vital Condition for Advance
to Socialism

Pietro Ingrao

NLY if one bears in mind the hardships
experienced by the Italian people under
fascism and the problems which confronted
the Communist vanguard at that time can
one grasp the full significance of the defense
of democratic freedoms for the Italian labor

movement.

After World War I, the Communist van-
guard led an uncompromising fight against
reformism, seeking to bring home to the
workers Lenin’s criticism of bourgeois democ-
racy, a correct interpretation of the class
nature of the state and the need for proletari-
an dictatorship. At that time the threat of

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WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 19

fascism taking over, which it later did, hung
over Italy. That is why the battle against
reformism was interwoven with the ideolo-
gical and political campaigns to expose the
true class nature of fascism and counter the
idealists and bourgeois radicals who depicted
fascism as a petty-bourgeois “aberration’” or
as a temporary measure for restoring law
and order.

However, the Left sectarian wing led by
Bordiga, which headed the Italian Communist
Party soon after its foundation in Livorno,
1921, failed to draw the correct conclusions
from the situation. Bordiga’s supporters were
blind to the fact that fascism was a new
phenomenon; they saw in it only new person-
alities and groups coming to power and were
incapable of drawing up a program to resist
fascism, in keeping with the revolutionary
aims of the Communist Party. The Bordiga
group reduced the Party’s task to the training
of leading cadres who would head the masses
when the course of events brought the Party
into the spotlight. This approach threatened
to doom the Party to passivity, to turn it
into a sect isolated from the masses, incapable
of influencing social developments or solving
the complex issues confronting it under fascist
tyranny.

That is why in the early period of its exist-
ence the Party waged a bitter internal struggle
against Bordiga’s sectarianism and dogmatism.
The purpose was to reveal and analyze the
essence of fascism and its roots so that the
Party could head the mass resistance to fascist
lawlessness. The theses of the Third Party
Congress held in Lyons in January 1926
marked a turning point in this respect. The
document stated that fascism was an instru-
ment of the industrial and agrarian oligarchy.
It analyzed the class contradictions which had
been aggravated by the advent of fascism,
pointed to the possible allies of the working
class, called for struggle at least for the most
immediate political demands and formulated
the task of building a mass party on Leninist
principles.

This Marxist analysis of Italian society
and of the motive forces of the social revolu-
tion, as well as the program of action, signi-
fied a resolute break with the arid reformist
empiricism and pseudo-revolutionary phrase-
ology of the sectarians and maximalists. The
document set forth the basic principles for
united action—the keynote of the Party’s
whole subsequent struggle against fascism.

The theses, it is true, displayed hesitancy
in working out a common anti-fascist pro-

gram. Certain transient demands were ad-
vanced rather as a means of unmasking the
stand of the non-revolutionary forces than as
a basis for united action with other anti-fascist
political groups. The Party itself was not
yet altogether clear on the point that a just
and necessary criticism of bourgeois democ-
racy, its class character and inherent limita-
tions, in no way meant that the working class
was indifferent to the methods of oppression
used by the bourgeoisie. In 1928, Comrade
Ercoli (Togliatti) raised the same question in
an article in Stato Operaio, the Party’s theo-
retical journal. He explained that the working
class could not be indifferent to the change
from bourgeois democracy to a regime of
outright violence. Failure to see this new
feature would be tantamount to the working
class surrendering its political role in resisting
fascism, tantamount to defeat.

The advent of Hitler, the strengthening of
fascism and the war danger, posed this ques-
tion before the entire labor movement and
led to a turn in policy which found expression
in the Resolution of the VIIth Congress of
the Third International. This Resolution, start-
ing from the definition of fascism as the dic-
tatorship of the most reactionary and .aggres-
sive capitalist groups, interpreted in a new
light the deepening conflict between fascism
and the basic and immediate interests not
of the proletariat alone, but also of the vast
majority of the people, including the peasants,
the middle urban strata and wide sections of
the bourgeoisie itself. It pointed out to: the
non-proletarian sections which suffered from
fascism, the common enemy to be combatted,
and thereby opened the way to the isolation
of the most reactionary capitalist groups,
to an alliance between the working class and
the masses of town and countryside, and io
the setting up of a new regime, not yet
socialist, it is true, but at the same time not
one that would merely restore the formal
freedoms abolished by fascism.

That is why the Resolution of the VIIth
Congress was of such importance for the
unfolding of the anti-fascist movement and
the growth of influence of the Communist
vanguard in Italy. The vanguard was ready
to assimilate the C. I. decisions precisely
because it had been steeled in the theoretical
and political struggles waged under Gramsci
and Togliatti against the sectarian, anti-Lenin-
ist trends. The document gave clarity and
vitality to the link between the struggle for
democratic freedoms and the demand for a
new social system. It was not a matter of
first winning democratic freedoms and then

20

setting up a new social system, but to work
for both simultaneously. It was essential not
only to overthrow Mussolini but also to strike
at the social base of fascism—the big monop-
oly cartels. With this aim in view it was
possible to rally the broad middle sections
which play a considerable role in Italian
public life and which were often used by
fascism to promote its political ends. These
masses were to be drawn into the struggle
for socialism through an alliance with the
working class in fighting for certain transient
aims.

Thus, the struggle against fascism, for
democratic freedoms, went beyond the frame-
work of defensive working-class action io
restore freedom of association. This struggle
enabled the working class—by winning over
new allies—to head the general movement
for national renovation, for peace and inde-
pendence, with a view to dealing a blow io
big business and paving the way to socialism.

With this objective in mind our Party—
during the armed resistance to fascism and
after its defeat—unrelentingly fought against
those who maintained that the overthrow of
fascist tyranny meant merely a “return” to
the regime that existed before the “march
on Rome’’*. The Party proposed to the anti-
fascist movement that a new system of pro-
gressive democracy be established, 1 system
which would transform the backward econom-
ic forms of Italian society, give a new social
content to democratic freedoms, destroy the
roots of fascism and preclude the resurgence
of an openly reactionary regime.

In this way the struggle for democratic
freedoms was closely and firmly interwoven
with the movement for re-shaping the old
social system. On the basis of the unity won
in the struggle against fascism and war, our
Party tried to rally the masses around a
constructive program for far-reaching social
reorganization and changes.

Its efforts in this direction yielded results.
It became possible to consolidate the alliance
with the Socialist Party and to influence
considerable sections of the Catholic move-
ment and the petty-bourgeois radicals. Thanks
to the mass struggles and the broad public
action, the monarchy was abolished, a Con-
stituent Assembly convened and a new Consti-
tution approved for a more advanced demo-
cratic system than the pre-fascist one. The
new Constitution not only extended demo-
cratic liberties as compared with the old

* In October 1922, Mussolini, instigated by ithe industrial
magnates and the royal court, staged the march on Rome
and seized power.

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

Statuto Albertino (Charter of King Carlo
Alberto), it proclaimed a number of new
rights for the working people in the sphere
of production, distribution of the national
income and implementation of civil and poli-
tical liberties. The Constitution recognized
the need for reforms to restrict the landed
estates and the economic power of the monop-
olies. Through extending the functions of
local self-government it decentralized political
and administrative power, thereby bringing
it closer to the people.

The new Constitution, of course, retained
capitalist production relations. It provided,
however, for far-reaching changes in the struc-
ture of private property. It affirmed the right
of intervention and control in this sphere on
the part of the state and of the working
people and outlined a program which, if real-
ized, would have secured definite gains for
the people and the working class.

The old reactionary and conservative group-
ings soon realized what implementation of
the Constitution had in store for them. So
they concentrated on subverting the unity
won during the Resistance and in the drawing
up of the Constitution, and no sooner was the
latter adopted than they sought to bury it.
Scelba, a clerical leader, former Prime Minis-
ter and Minister of the Interior, cynically
confirmed this policy, saying that the Chris-
tian Democrats would not tolerate the Consti-
tution being turned into a “trap” for their
Party.

The reactionaries launched an all-out attack
on the Constitution. The shameful fascist
legislation, which had been rescinded by the
Constitution or which was subject to repeal,
was unlawfully left in force. In public life
there was political discrimination, which
violated the principles of freedom proclaimed
by the Constitution. The Church was permit-
ted and encouraged to intimidate the people,
to exert pressure and intervene in election
campaigns and in other political spheres.
Defying the Constitution, the reactionaries
refused to adopt reforms or sabotaged those
designed to curb the power of big business.
This action made it possible to re-establish
the despotic regime in the factories and to
restore monopoly rule.

That is why in the past decade Italy was
the scene of unending battles for social de-
mands, evolving eventually into struggles for
freedom and Constitutional princivles. The
workers, occupying the factories threatened
with closure; the peasants, taking over the
landed estates; and the unemployed, demon-

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WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 21

strating in the streets for jobs—all based
themselves on the new principles of the Con-
stitution, and insisted that they be respected.
The working people came out in defense of
constitutional legality, and charged the ruling
classes with sabotage and subversion of law
and order. In these clashes there were tragic
moments when the authorities opened fire
on the demonstrators and caused blood to
flow in the streets. Hence the question of
freedoms acquired a simple, elementary char-
acter —to preserve the lives and physical
existence of the workers. Therefore, to put
an end to these reprisals it was necessary io
launch a broad movement (under the leader-
ship of the Communist and Socialist parties
and the General Confederation of Labor), to
organize general and partial political strikes,
street demonstrations, popular assemblies and
rallies. The movement, initiated in the facto-
ries, extended to Parliament, it spread from
the municipalities to the regional councils
and, in one way or another, gripped the
entire country.

The struggle was a difficult and costly one
for the workers’ vanguard, for the Left parties,
and particularly for our Party. Our Party
invariably pointed out that this movement
should take the form not of a single decisive
battle, but of a multiform, non-stop struggle.
Not even a single case of arbitrary action, no
matter how insignificant, should be left with-
out protest or rebuff. All methods and means
of exposure and protest, even the most ele-
mentary, should be used by the working-class
parties to achieve their ends in the various
spheres of public life.

It was important for this multiform move-
ment to bring home to the people that the
democratic system was in danger, and that
the totalitarian policy, to which the ruling
circles —the employers and clericals — had
resorted, was perilous to the entire nation.
This resulted in the organization in 1953 of
a broad opposition to the open attack launch-
ed by the Christian Democrats against the
Constitution through a new election law
designed to ensure for them and their allies
a two-thirds’ majority. They needed it to
revise the Constitution in a reactionary way
and to pass a series of previously drafted
bills trampling on freedom.

The fight against this swindle of the Chris-
tian Democrats lasted eight months. Our Party
sought above all to explain to the masses the
grave implications of the proposed measures.
And the working-class parties emerged vic-
torious precisely because they made it clear

to. the masses that it was a matter, not so
much of the numerical strength of the opposi-
tion in Parliament, as of preventing an openly
reactionary government from coming io
power.

The success achieved was due to the vigor
with which the electoral law swindle was
fought in Parliament, to the persistence of the
day-to-day struggles in committees and cham-
ber alike; to the unyielding efforts to gain
every extra hour in the debate, to the obstruc-
tion tactics and the bitter clashes in the
chamber. All this made the public aware of
the dangerous implications of the issue and
helped rally the masses. The parliamentary
struggle was linked with the nationwide
movement. Hundreds of local strikes, general
political strikes and mass demonstrations,
accompanied by clashes with the police, took
place. Thousands of meetings and protest
rallies were held, deputations and petitions
flowed to Parliament in a continuous stream
with the demand to save Italy from the totali-
tarian regime plotted by the Christian Demo-
crats.

United action both inside and outside Parli-
ament, action that aroused the entire nation,
resulted in the defeat of the swindle in the
elections held on June 7, 1953.

It is clear that the reactionary plot failed,
not only because of the bitter eight months’
campaign, but also because of the depth and
scope assured by the Italian labor movement’s
struggle for democratic freedoms. The reac-
tionaries failed because the working-class
vanguard knew only too well how vital it
was, in Italian conditions, to uphold parlia-
mentary and democratic institutions, and was
aware of the significance of this defense for
the. immediate demands..and needs of the
people and for the ultimate aims of the ad-
vance to socialism.

* So ie

Despite their abortive frontal attack on the
Constitution in 1953 and the subsequent fail-
ure to get an absolute majority in the 1958
general election, the Christian Democrats
have not yet relinquished their plans to nullify
the Constitution and impose an authoritarian
regime. On the contrary, we are now con-
fronted with new attempts to solve the issues
in the interests of totalitarianism, attempts
which have deeper roots and which at times
assume new, more organic, though concealed,
forms.

With the aggravation of the general crisis
of capitalism and the sharpening of its internal
contradictions, the conservative forces behind
the Christian Democratic Party are making

22

every effort to enact measures in agriculture,
industry and distribution, designed to facili-
tate the concentration of capital and give the
monopolies more power. The reactionaries are
helping the monopolies retain their positions
at a time when the economic situation is
changing for the worse and the Common
Market agreement is coming into force. They
are planning a change in agricultural policy
to the detriment of the small peasants and
in favor of the big capitalist farmers. This
change will lead to the ousting of millions
of toilers from the land and to the depopula-
tion of vast mountainous and valley regions.
Some of the arable land is to be turned into
pasture. The reactionaries are bent on subor-
dinating the state-owned enterprises to mon-
opoly interests, on creating more unemploy-
ment, on reducing expenditure on welfare,
freezing wages which have already declined
due to the high cost of living.

These designs and pressures on the part
of reaction are being countered by the active
resistance of the working-class and democratic
movements, by their unity and the influence
which they exert on the masses who, on May
25, 1958, gave the Left-wing parties 11 million
votes, of which 6,700,000 went to the Com-
munist Party. The fascist tyranny is still fresh
in the minds of the people, and the clerical
- fuling--circles.. have not yet forgotten their
‘pittér” experiences “with “the “electoral law
swindle.

Thus, overt attempts to restore tyranny
and head-on attacks on the parliamentary
system entail difficulties and hidden dangers
for the ruling circles. This explains the some-
what unusual forms of the reactionary maneu-
vers, and why the Clericals prefer clandestine
means which, though slower, are no less
perfidious. The clerical big-wigs make a pre-
tense of respect for Parliament, but in reality
seek to deprive it of real powers. So far the
election law remains unchanged, but freedom
of suffrage is being infringed, discrimination
exercised, people threatened with hunger, and
pressures applied by government and Church.
Attempts are being made to restrict demo-
cratic rights and freedoms, and arbitrary rule
by the authorities is encouraged. The authori-
ties either suspend rights temporarily or annul
them completely by orders of prefects or
police. Autonomy of municipal organs is like-
wise violated. Convocation of the regional
assemblies of electors, though provided for
in the Constitution, has been ruled out and
discrimination and arbitrariness in the fac-
tories stepped up.

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

More and more clericals are being promoted
to leading posts in economic, public and
administrative bodies. A network of authori-
tarian, bureaucratic and anti-democratic bo-
dies, designed to establish control over the
masses in various spheres, is being set up.

’ These bodies command the very life of the

people and their jobs; they are sapping their
militant spirit by making minor concessions
and splitting their ranks in the struggle for
general political demands.

The specific role of the clerical movement
as an ally of the big monopolies is revealed
more and more. The clericals are competing
with the working-class parties in trying to
win the masses. As the ruling party, they use
their position in the government not only
to weaken the influence of the working-class
parties, but to prevent the masses from be-
coming organized on an independent and
democratic basis. Through its organizations
the clerical movement canvasses support for:
big business, and has gained an influence
among the masses to a degree unthinkable
for the openly conservative parties. The cleri-
cals owe much of their success with the
masses to the power wielded by the Church
and its traditional organization.

Thus, the clerical movement in Italy, and
not only in Italy, seeks to divide the masses
and keep them in durance. (In other countries
this is achieved differently, by the Right-wing
Social Democrats.) In this way, the attacks on
the rights and freedoms of the workers are
combined with paternalist crumbs and admin-
istrative pseudo-reforms, as well as with par-
tial concessions, to stay the mounting pressure
of the masses.

By means of this combined action big
business and the clerical movement intend
to maintain the illusion of a parliamentary
democracy, to retain its forms and to destroy
its substance. In this respect, things in Italy
and France are similar. When the Central
Committee of our Party discussed the develop-
ments in France, it emphasized the differences
in the respective countries, but it also noted
that the events in France were an episode
in a broader offensive against democratic
freedoms throughout Western Europe.

Comrade Togliatti recalled that fascism, too,
has its specific ‘‘national roads” of develop-
ment, that fascism does not establish tyranny
in a single day, but gains its objective through
internal conflict and by different methods in
the various countries. Of course, we cannot
assert that an outright reactionary regime will
be established in Western Europe in the same
way as fascism came to power, for both the

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 23

objective situation and the relationship of
forces on the international arena have chang-
ed. But it is most important to register in
good time the growing power of the big
monopolies in Europe, that is, of those capital-
ist groupings which nursed fascism and en-
couraged its military gambles. This brings to
the fore, both in our country and in other
West-European countries, the fate of the
democratic freedoms won in struggle against
fascism.

The big European monopolies see that, as
a result of the success of the socialist world
and the national-liberation movement in the
colonies, the crisis-shattered foundations of
their age-old rule are being destroyed. The
monopolies want to subjugate ever larger
masses of small independent producers and
to shift the whole burden of their own defeats
on to the shoulders of the workers. That is
why the monopolies can no longer afford to
put up with a strong and well-organized work-
ing-class movement and democratic system.
And indeed, in France a frontal attack is
being launched against the democratic insti-
tutions built on the ruins of the Vichy regime.
In Italy the reactionaries, by means of perfi-
dious intrigues, are endeavoring to establish
a virtual totalitarianism. The Communist Party
has been outlawed in West Germany. Fascism
rules the roost in Spain. A reactionary regime
is in power in Greece, despite the blows it
has suffered. It cannot be denied that in other
capitalist countries of Europe, except Finland,
the class enemy has managed to curb the
Communist-led mass movement and to streng-
then his positions.

Our Party has called on the democratic
labor movement of Italy boldly to face the
situation, to take into account the delays and
obstacles likely to appear on the way to the
triumph of socialist ideas, and the danger
that this may bode for the destiny of peace.

During the Fascist onslaught in the inter-
war period, the working-class movement and
the Communist parties managed — learning
from the experience gained—to improve their
strategy, display more initiative, consolidate
the unity of the masses, and head the nation-
wide movement which eventually swept fas-
cism away. In drawing attention to the danger
of restoration of outright reactionary regimes
in Western Europe, we urge that, in the
present favorable conditions created by the
success of the socialist world, a unity of
action be achieved, of a scale and might
equal to that of our past struggle against
fascism. :

The impressive advance of the Soviet Union,
People’s China and the entire socialist camp,
and the sweep of the national-liberation move-
ment, should arouse us not to wait for the
ultimate victory which, undoubtedly, will
come, but to the consciousness that now
new possibilities are opening up for repelling
the attacks of reaction, for upholding the
freedoms gained and stepping out along the
road to socialism even in those countries of
Europe which are still strongholds of capi-
talism.

All this makes a burning issue of the ques-
tion of unity of the political leadership of the
Italian working class and, consequently, of
the alliance and co-operation between Com-
munists and Socialists. In the present situa-
tion, on the eve of battles which undoubtedly
will affect the very foundations of our social
system, the Communists hold that their co-
operation with the Socialists on occasional
day-to-day issues, from time to time, is not
sufficient. Even co-operation on broader lines
in the trade unions, municipalities and co-
operatives is likewise insufficient. We main-
tain that an alliance on a general political
plane is necessary, one that is directed to the
great political battle which we must wage
together. That is why we engaged in a vigor-
ous polemic against tendencies which could
weaken Communist-Socialist co-operation, and
which eventually led to the annulment of
our agreement on united action; that is why
we-opposed the reformist and revisionist anti-
unity trends now existing in the Socialist
Party. Cementing of Communist - Socialist
unity, expressed in new forms to meet the
present specific conditions is, in our view, the
way to deliver a massive rebuff to the offen-
sive launched by the reactionary clericals and
employers, and to involve more Catholic, So-
cial-Democratic and non-party forces in the
movement for democratic freedoms.

* * *

What was the reaction of our Party and the
Italian labor movement to the campaign
launched by the newly-formed Fanfani-Saragat
government against democratic rights and
freedoms? The primary reason for the clash
were the Middle East developments of last
summer. The advanced sections of the work-
ing class reacted to the Anglo-American
aggression in the Middle East with stormy
demonstrations against permitting the imper-
ialist forces to use Italian ports and air bases.
The demonstrators demanded that Italy de-
clare her support for peace and express her
solidarity with the Arab nations. Hundreds
of rallies were organized by the Chambers of

24

Labor, and Communists and Socialists held
joint demonstrations. The municipalities, pro-
vincial councils and trade unions also pro-
tested. In the streets there were clashes with
the police and people were arrested. Repres-
sions were stepped up.

The movement grew and the Fanfani gov-
ernment instructed the prefects and the police
to. issue a series of decrees which in fact
abolished freedom of agitation and propagan-
da, permitted, contrary to law, the confisca-
tion of opposition posters, and banned or
restricted rallies on the pretext that Middle
East problems should be discussed only in
Parliament. Actually these bans, enforced in
violation of the law, were extended to a
number of domestic issues, including labor
disputes.

Thus, very serious and fundamental issues
bearing on the rights of the opposition and
basic civil freedoms were involved.

Our Party called on its organizations to
counter these attacks by consolidating the
unity of the masses. And indeed, the struggle
of those weeks made it possible to extend
and strengthen Socialist-Communist co-opera-
tion and even overcome some of the differ-
ences which had sharpened during the general
election campaign. We tried to establish con-
tact with Christian Democratic organizations,
suggesting that joint discussions and public
debates on the attitude of our respective par-
ties to the Middle East issue be organized.
We urged our activists to fight everywhere
and not to overlook a single case of injustice
or violence, to organize mass protests and
delegations, to issue slogans and to use legal
channels—the courts of law—should the need
arise. Thus, each ban on the part of the
police meant a political issue which was
fought with varying success. The outcome of
the struggle, of course, depended on the
strength, initiative and skill of our organiza-
tions. Through us this protest movement as-
sumed a universal character, not only because
we actively participated in parliamentary de-
bate, but also because we convened an all-
Italy Assembly of Communist Deputies, may-
ors, local and provincial councillors, which
helped to collect and present the documen-
tary evidence on all the unlawful acts of the
government. Comrades Togliatti and Terrac-
cini submitted the collection of documents
and an appropriate memorandum to the Pre-
sident.

As a result we were able to halt the police
onslaught and secure a turn to a more orga-
nized defense of democratic freedoms. The

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

working-class movement and our Party ac-
quired a better understanding of the designs
of the Fanfani government.

This action in defense of democratic free-
doms, stimulated by the sharp struggle of
July 1958, has now developed into a broader
movement in connection with the events in
France. Immediately after the colonialist
coup in Algeria, the Italian workers, on the
initiative of our Party, opened a discussion
on the French developments. An exchange of
views took place in the factories and, gradu-
ally broadening, attracted large masses of
people. The discussion helped re-establish
unity of action of the Communists and Social-
ists. This step was furthered by the experience
gained during the July peace demonstrations
and the joint counter-measures against police
injustice.

The rank-and-file Socialists and Communists
in one of the Turin plants jointly called on the
working people to learn from the lessons of
France and to work for unity in order to repel
the danger to Italy. The appeal was taken up
by the workers in other factories. And in
recent weeks there has been a noticeable
rise in the number of meetings, rallies and
joint Communist-Socialist actions in defense
of democratic gains, now threatened by the
clericals and the employers.

This movement assumes a variety of forms
and pursues a number of objectives, depend-
ing on the urgent social and political prob-
lems confronting the working class and other
working people in the localities. This is ex-
plained by the fact that in our country it
is most essential to link defense of democra-
tic rights and freedoms with the struggle
for changes in the social and political struc-
ture, which would strike primarily at the land
monopoly, industrial monopoly and the rich,
i.e., at the social forces behind the attack on
the democratic structure.

Today as never before, defense of the demo-
cratic structure in Italy cannot be confined
to protection of some abstract or formal free-
dom; it means the fight for land, for the
revision of farm contracts, for the rights of
the trade unions and factory committees, for
extension of the powers of local government
bodies, for regional electoral assemblies, for
more jobs, as well as for a policy of peace,
trade and cultural exchange with all nations.

It is precisely on this basis that the working-
class vanguard can strengthen its ties with
those sections which have suffered most from
the growing power of the monopolies, under-
take united action with the working people—
Catholics and Social Democrats alike — and

‘WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 25

be not only on the defensive but also assume
the offensive, not only protest, but also put
forward constructive proposals.

It is on this basis that the organized move-
ment of the masses should be strengthened.
A network of democratic organizations should
be built to enable the workers to counter
violence, intimidation and corruption by
clericals and employers.

Typical of this activity was our campaign
for the setting up of regional electoral assem-
blies envisaged in the Constitution. These
assemblies are an important defensive weapon
against arbitrary action on the part of the
clerica! authorities and their bureaucratic
apparatus. At the same time they meet the
requirements of the popular demand that
regional development plans for industry, agri-
culture and social welfare be elaborated.
Hence, they give the people an opportunity
to exercise more effectively their-powers of
self-government.

In places where authoritative regional as-
semblies have been set up, for instance in
Sicily, it has been possible, in recent years,
to make definite gains by restricting the
Christian Democrats’ monopoly of government
authority. The newly formed regional govern-
ment will abolish this monopoly.

How is the struggle to defend and develop
the democratic system, to renovate our
society, connected with our general struggle
for socialism? When we say that implementa-
tion of far-reaching structural reforms in our
country can open the road to socialism we
do not suggest that each of these structural
reforms is, in itself, a part of socialism. More-
over, we do not believe that, in the aggregate,
these reforms will mechanically bring about
the socialist system. Our Party has always
rejected such reformist, Social-Democratic
concepts. Marxism-Leninism unequivocally
states that the principal condition for building
a socialist society is the conquest of political
power by the working class which, led by its
revolutionary party, smashes the old state
machine, builds a new state, socializes the
main means of production and in this way
rallies the broad masses of the exploited and
establishes new forms of direct democracy.

However, the working-class vanguard
should, in the light of Marxist-Leninist theory,
assess And chart the transitional periods and
battles that have to be gone through on the
way to achievement of the fundamental aim:
conquest of political power by the working
class, establishment of the proletarian dicta-

torship. Implementation of structural reforms,
enforcement of the republican Constitution
and the building up of a democratic system—
such is the road we should take to isolate
the big monopoly groups, deprive them of
their power and rally, under working-class
leadership, the majority of the people and
the other sections interested in abolishing
the monopolies. This is the way to achieve
a new relationship of forces which would
enable the working class to take over state
power and begin to build a socialist society.

This is not a path strewn with roses, the
road of compromise, nor is it the sum total
of victorious election campaigns. On the con-
trary it is a road of bitter class struggle,
requiring a well-organized workers’ move-
ment, organic unity of mass action undertaken
to isolate and defeat the main enemy of the
working class and win the allies needed for
conquest of political power. This is the road
demanding a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist
party, steeled ideologically and politically and
capable of continuous action and of main-
taining contact with the broad sections of
the population.

That is why we have always considered
it erroneous and one-sided to define Italy’s
road to socialism as a “parliamentary road.”
On the basis of the instructive conclusions
of the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU,
our Party has stressed that under the new
conditions which have evolved as a result of
the victories gained by socialism and ithe
defeats suffered by capitalism, it is possible
to use Parliament not only as a propaganda
rostrum, but also as an arena for securing
gains for the people. But this depends, as
Comrade Togliatti constantly reminds us, on
a powerful, well-organized movement of the
working people, on broad unity of the masses,
as well as on a revolutionary vanguard capable
of mapping out a correct political course.

We feel that at present a powerful mass
movement in Italy can influence the political
forces supporting the clerical government,
take advantage of their internal contradic-
tions, effect a shift which would break up the
rigid division between the government major-
ity and the Left opposition and pave the way
to definite achievements. That is why when
we talk about the link between parliamentary
activity and the general struggle we have in
mind not only a broader movement, not only
the need for support of the labor opposition
in Parliament through propaganda, but such
an extension of the front of class battles as
would change the relation of forces in Parlia-

26

ment in favor of the working class and the
people.

‘In order to arrive at this conclusion on the
link between action in Parliament and outside
we have worked and shali continue to work
for a correct orientation of the working-class
and democratic movement itself. On the one
hand, it is necessary to overcome the tendency
of those who believe that a bourgeois govern-
ment bloc is something immutable and immov-
able, for this concept tends to obscure its
internal contradictions. The ultimate result
of this tendency—every time a local or a
general election campaign fails to win a
majority for the working-class parties — is
distrust and passivity on the part of the
masses. On the other hand, it is necessary
to combat another tendency in the democratic
movement and in the Socialist Party which,
in an effort to end the stalemate in political
life, places its main hopes on inner-parlia-
mentary maneuvers. This tendency was born
of the illusion that by weakening the opposi-
tion to the Christian Democrats, chiefly by
disrupting the Communist-Socialist alliance,
it would be possible to induce the Christian
Democrats to shift to the Left and thereby
achieve a compromise. Actually, the rupture
of the Socialist-Communist unity agreement
merely weakened the pressure of the masses,
achieved through joint effort, and as a conse-
quence, weakened the positions of the opposi-
tion. So that instead of inducing the Christian
Democrats to move Left, the abrogation of
the agreement swung them to the Right.

A closer view of the situation will reveal
that both tendencies—first, that the bourgeois
bloc is immutable and immovable and, second,
that the situation can be changed as a result
of inner-parliamentary maneuvers and conces-
sions to the enemy—follow from one and
the same misunderstanding and underestima-
tion of the decisive role played by united
mass action. It should never be forgotten that
the power and effectiveness of the working-
class opposition in Parliament depends on

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

its ability to intervene in the class battles in
the country, through establishing a dialectical
link between its own initiative and the revolu-
tionary struggles of the working class and
all working people.
* * cg

With such prospects the fight of the work-
ing-class vanguard for democratic freedoms,
for an advanced democratic system, for a
parliament which would be a true champion
of the will of the people, is not a transient
measure (not an episode), it is a component
of the overall struggle of the vanguard for
achieving socialism. That is why the heralds
of the Italian bourgeoisie lie when, in self-
justification, they characterize our struggles
for democratic freedoms as an artful trick
or a maneuver.

In defending the freedoms won by the
people, and in fighting for their extension,
we remain faithful to our ideals, our outlook
and our ultimate revolutionary aims. The
decisions of the Eighth Congress, it is true,
reaffirm that the course of these struggles
does not depend solely on the working class
and its revolutionary vanguard. The history
of capitalist society confirms by numerous
examples that the conservative forces, in an
endeavor to cling to their privileges, resort
to the most savage forms of violence, includ-
ing war, shed rivers of blood, and abolish
even the semblance of political democracy.
This should never be forgotten, especially
now when the Western capitalist circles are
ready to plunge into any reactionary gamble.
A theoretical and political understanding of
this reality, far from causing us to abandon
the struggle for democratic freedoms, should,
on the contrary, give us renewed strength to
defend and extend the freedoms already won
by the people. And the more allies the work-
ing class has in these battles, the more de-
cisively will it be able to resist reactionary
violence and the better will be its chances
of defeating it.

f-

he
n,
k
he
ie,
es
ss

an
rt
d-
sh
y.
ly
ire
le.

on
Id,

on
‘k-
je-
ry
eS

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 27

Party Tactics and Contact
With the Masses

Leon Bohr

ORTY years ago, in January 1919, Lenin
wrote in a letter to the workers of Eu-
rope and America that, although formally
the Comintern had not yet been established,
“the Third International already exists.’”’ The
class-conscious workers, taught by the les-
sons of the imperialist war and influenced by
the Russian revolution, became convinced of
the need to break with the opportunists and
form revolutionary parties of a new type.
The appearance of such parties in a number
of countries marked a new stage in the in-
ternational labor movement. The workers,
Lenin said, slowly but surely were drawing
nearer to communist tactics.

Socialism, which in 1919 was gripped in
the iron ring of blockade and intervention
and underwent incredible sufferings in bat-
tling for its existence, has developed into a
great world system stretching from the Elbe
to the South China Sea. The Communist par-
ties have grown in number and gained in
strength. The First Congress of the Comin-
tern was attended by delegates from 20 par-
ties; at the Second, held in 1920, 37 parties
were represented. Prior to World War II the
Communist parties had an overall member-
ship of 4.2 million. At present there are 75
parties with a total membership of 33 mil-
lion. Communist tactics have been enriched
immeasurably. They have become more flex-
ible, more in tune with reality, but the fun-
damental principles remain the same; in the
changing conditions of 40 years of struggle
they have stood the test. These principles
form the basis of the activities of the Marx-
ist-Leninist parties in the capitalist countries.

Success in the Struggle is Determined
by the Millions

The great objectives of the Communist
parties can be attained only through the or-
ganized actions of the masses. Neither indi-
vidual heroes nor separate groups can trans-
form capitalist society in a revolutionary
way; what is more, even parties may be
powerless if they rely mainly on themselves
and fail to bring the millions of workers
into action.

Marxism has demonstrated the decisive
role of the masses in the development of

society and the special historical mission of
the working class. All the practical activities
of Marx and Engels were an example of un-
flagging effort to strengthen the contact of
the numerically small communist groups with
the workers. Already in those days the basis
was laid for the tactics of the incipient Marx-
ist parties; the aim of these tactics was, in
addition to furthering the class consciousness
of the proletariat, to rouse it to revolution-
ary action.

The theoretical legacy left by the found-
ers of Marxism includes vital principles of
tactics designed to draw large numbers of
workers into the struggle. Marx and Engels,
however, lived at a time which only pre-
saged really mass struggles. The proletarian
actions in the revolutions of 1848 and even
the valiant struggle of the Paris Commun-
ards, “storming heaven” for 72 days, were
but harbingers of the approaching storm that
set in later. The breaking of the storm was
marked by unprecedented mass activity; tens
and hundreds of millions, not tens and hun-
dreds of thousands as was the case formerly,
now moved into action; the variety of the
forms of action and the wealth of revolu-
tionary rank and file initiative were such as
could only be dreamed of in the days of
Marx and Engels. And the question: how to
¢master..all.these forms and lead the genu-
inely mass movement, became the focal point
in the tactics of the Marxist parties.

Lenin, relying on the vast experience ac-
cumulated in the first round of socialist rev-
olutions, summarized their lessons, pointed
to the specific features of bourgeois-demo-
cratic and national-liberation revolutions in
the epoch of imperialism and fully elaborated
the tactical principles of Marxism. The rich
experience of the Communist parties has
added much that is new to revolutionary
Marxist tactics, both as a science and an
art, equipping the parties with a scientific
approach to the solution of tactical questions
in the given conditions.

Communist tactics are determined by the
aims, program and revolutionary ideology of
the party. The tasks of the major historical
stages on the way to the final goal are

28

solved by strategy. But each stage consists
of a series of lesser stages, and the party,
by means of tactics, seeks to realize that
which has matured at a particular stage,
and outlines the forms of struggle and the
tasks of the day. Tactics derive from stra-
tegy. Hence, a correct understanding of the
strategic tasks is an indispensable condition
for drawing up correct tactics. The Seventh
Congress of the Japanese Communist Party,
for example, pointed out that a number of
tactical. mistakes made towards the end of
the ’forties and in the early ’fifties can be
explained. by the .fact that. some members
incorrectly’ assessed the present strategic
stage as the one which had to fulfil socialist
tasks, whereas the country was going
through the stage of democratic and na-
tional-liberation struggle.

Communist tactics are based on firm prin-
ciples and are systematically and steadfastly
carried out by the party as a plan of revo-
lutionary activity. Leninism teaches that this
plan should always proceed from a scientific
analysis of reality and pay due regard to
the correlation of class forces in the given
country and on the international arena.

The present stage of the communist move-
ment, notwithstanding its peculiarities in
different capitalist countries, has one com-
mon feature: as the Moscow Declaration of
‘the Communist and Workers’ Parties noted,
there are sharpening contradictions not only
between a handful of monopolists, on the
one hand, and the working class, on the
other, but also between the monopolists and
the other sections of capitalist society —
‘peasants, intellectuals and small and middle
‘urban bourgeoisie. This creates the condi-
‘tions for building a united working-class
front, bringing together the majority of the
people in the fight against the capitalist
monopolies, and helps the Communist parties
‘to become the cementing link uniting all the
progressive forces, parties and _ political
trends that are ready to fight against the
dictatorship of monopoly capital.

In the countries already enslaved or in the
process of being enslaved by U.S. monopo-
lies, the working class is the natural expon-
ent of the national interests, and the Com-
munist parties are able to do a great deal in
building a militant national unity in defense
of democratic liberties and independence.

The, colonial and other countries, which have
‘recently thrown off the colonial yoke, have
every opportunity for forming a united anti-
imperialist.. and anti-feudal movement. We

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

are now witnessing that unparalleled surge
of mass activity foreseen by Lenin.

Leninism provides theoretical substantia-
tion of the cardinal tactical questions. But
notwithstanding the wealth of content and
the range of tactical problems covered by Len-
inism, it is not difficult to see the standpoint
from which Lenin approached every pheno-
menon in the spheres of history and ideology
and, particularly, the practice of the Com-
munist parties. This is, constant verification
of the programmatic and tactical concepts
of the parties through mass action.

Much time is needed for a party to deve-
lop from a small group of like-minded peo-
ple, working mainly in the Party, into an
organization linked with the masses and cap-
able of influencing them. The duration of the
stages experienced by each party in the
course of its development is never the same.
This depends on the objective conditions in
the country and in large measure on the
party itself, on its energy, cohesion and tac-
tics. But no matter how uneven the com-
plex process of combining communist ideas
with the working-class movement may be,
and no matter how the Communist and
Workers’ parties differ in strength, mem-
bership and degree of organization, the
world communist movement as a whole has
already become a powerful and _ invincible
force. The activity of even the relatively
small Communist parties, that have not yet
won over the masses, is that inextinguishable
flame which sooner or later will flare up
into a popular mass movement.

Just as the laws of history are inexorable,
so is the process of growth of the Commun-
ist. parties and of extending their contacts
with the working people. But movements
forward do not advance in a straight line;
in the history of each Communist party there
are periods of rise and decline, of greater
and lesser influence on the masses. In the
everyday work of each party, success alter-
nates with failure. For instance, elections
are not always accompanied by a rise in the
Communist vote. However, both in periods
of success and in times of temporary setback
the Communist parties always adhere to the
Leninist tradition: in all circumstances sober-
ly to analyze the objective conditions, draw
lessons from mistakes and, above all, extend
contact with the masses.

Experience has shown that even the par-
ties enjoying prestige and mass support can-
not live on the capital of past services.
A feature of the party’s contact with the

‘masses is that it must be strengthened ail

aero = wt oS Ct

- Se EOS, 2

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 29

the time, day by day; any slackening of
work among the masses inevitably results
in a certain loss of positions. The enemy
does not sit idle; he tries to seize the initia-
tive, to extend his influence among the
masses, and he too draws lessons from his
experience and resorts to ever more cun-
ning devices. That is why the party should
always deepen and extend its _ influence
among the masses. This should be done
after every failure because weakness of
the work among the masses is one of the
reasons for defeat. And it should be done
after every victory, as otherwise it might
prove transient and it will be difficult to use
it for further progress.

The Masses Learn from Their
Own Experience

The Communist and Workers’ parties ex-
press the vital interests of the working class
and other toilers; they therefore have every
reason to count on active mass support.

But as we know, more than the publica-
tion of a Marxist-Leninist program is needed
in order to win prestige among the masses.
People learn not only from books. Lenin
pointed out that in order to get the whole
class, the masses of the working people and
all those oppressed by capital, to take the
standpoint of the party, propaganda and
agitation alone do not suffice. ‘For this the
masses must have their own political ex-
perience. Such is the fundamental law of
all great revolutions . . .” (Collected Works,
Vol. 31, Russ. Ed., p. 73)

The Communist parties always take into
account this objective law of the revolu-
tion in order not to become isolated from
the masses, not to be “misunderstood” and,
above all, not to make mistakes and to re-
gard as obsolete for the masses that which
is obsolete for the party. What has long
been clear to the Communists is not neces-
sarily clear to the masses. And the latter
should be taken as they are, with their
revolutionary instinct and militant soirit
and with their prejudices and illusions. There
cannot be the slightest shade of idealization
or wishful thinking here. With boundless
faith in the revolutionary energy of the
masses, Lenin always insisted on “doubt”
when it was a question of estimating the
real mood of the people. He firmly opposed
any exaggeration, holding that to base the
party’s tactics on idealization of the actual
relation of class forces was tantamount to
killing the tactics. The mood of the masses
should be reckoned with, no matter how

backward. One should not take: offense. at
the masses. Adhering to this Marxist-Lenin-
ist principle, Marcel Servin, addréssing the
Central Committee of the French Commun-
ist Party on the political situation in France
after the Gaullist referendum, noted that it
would be wrong to label as reactionaries
the 17 million who voted “Yes,” i.e. approved
the reactionary Constitution. That they had
been misled should be regarded as an objec-
tive factor, and it is necessary to re-estab-
lish or maintain contact with the majority
of these people; otherwise, the meeting
stressed, the Party will condemn itself to
isolation and stagnation. ss

The Communist engaged in popularizing
policy may be tempted to work among sym-
pathizers and supporters. It is easier to work
here, there are no strangers, nobody will
compromise you or attack you. To work
among wavering or even hostile people is
a different matter. Dirty tricks can be ex-
pected here; resourcefulness in argumenta-
tion is needed. Sometimes not a few diffi-
culties have to be. overcome in order to
penetrate into all, even the most reactionary,
organizations embracing working people.
But, as experience shows, this is the only
way in which the party can get to know
the real sentiment of the masses and its
members acquire the ability to work both
among advanced and ~backward sections of
the population alike.

The political level of the masses is the
point of departure for the Marxist-Leninist
party. But this does not at all mean that
it can adopt a wait-and-see attitude, waiting
for the day when the masses themselves
learn the lessons of life and realize that the
Communists are right. The faith of the
Marxist-Leninist parties, that sooner or later
the people will support them as the sole
exponents of their interests, has nothing in
common with fatalism or with waiting for
the “hour to strike.”

In exactly the same way the necessity of
taking into account the degree of conscious-
ness of the masses does not mean sinking
to the level of the masses, adapting the
Party to the backward sections. The Com-
munists call a prejudice a prejudice, an illu-
sion an illusion; at the same time they care-
fully assess the real degree of consciousness
of the masses.

An important principle of. communist iac-
tics, as defined: by’ Leninism, is to get the
masses to understand from their own ex-
perience the correctness of the Party’s policy,

30

to help them acquire the experience neces-
sary for revolutionary struggle.

The history of many Communist parties
contains instructive examples of how com-
munist policy, at first received with preju-
dice by the masses, soon won the hearts
of millions because the party followed cor-
rect tactics and actively molded the political
experience and consciousness of the masses.

The tactics of the Russian Communists
between February and October 1917 serve
as an example in this respect. It will be re-
called that up to May the Communists had
received only a tenth of the votes cast at
the congresses and conferences of the work-
ing people. Not infrequently, people deceived
about the character of the war refused to
listen to the Bolshevik appeals to put an end
to it. There were occasions when working
people, who felt. that the war should be con-
- tinued, refused to let Communists speak
from the platforms. Yet the Party worked
among the masses patiently and painstaking-
ly, and explained its policy, using the ex-
. posures provided by life, the developments,
in fact all that the masses understood and
believed.

The Party directives of that period stress-
ed the need for propaganda in every regi-
ment, at every factory and, especially, among
the most backward masses on whom the
bourgeoisie: relies at times of crisis. Organi-
zation. organization and once more organiza-
tion of the proletariat at every factory, in
every street and district — this was the line
of the Bolshevik Party, and it was this that
enabled it to win over increasing numbers
of people. And had it not been for the
treachery of the petty-bourgeois parties, the
support won’ by the Bolsheviks could have
ensured the peaceful transfer of power to
the working class.

The French Communist Party had no wide
support when it exposed the warmongers at
the time of Munich and in 1939, during the
“phony war’. The enemies of communism
rejoiced at the isolation of the Party. But
soon the masses, taught by experience, be-
came convinced that the Communists were
right. The Party again enhanced its pres-
tige among the masses.

Ncwadays, many men and women iii

France do not yet realize that de Gaulle’s
advent to power and all his “reforms” sig-
nify an onslaught of fascism. Rut time will
dispel the illusions. It may be that the dem-
agogy, deceit, chauvinist propaganda, the
policy of silence and doubletaJk. will main-
tain the illusions for a while. But the facts

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

of life cannot be hushed up forever, nor
the things which cannot be changed so long
as real power remains in the hands of the
monopolies.

Slogans and Revolutionary Initiative

What should be done to help the masses
to acquire more quickly the necessary poli-
tical experience? Is explanatory work enough
for this? The significance of this work is
very great, but it always runs the risk of
becoming mere enlightenment unless_ sub-
ordinated to immediate aims, what we call
“immediate demands,” and linked to concrete
actions. Years of revolutionary practice have
taught the Communist parties that the en-
lightening of the masses, opening their eyes
to the real state of affairs, cannot be achiev-
ed by words alone. It presupposes organized
action.

Insofar as the masses apprehend reality
through the facts of daily life, facts which
have a direct bearing upon them, the Party
brings the masses to the solution of the
basic tasks only when it leads the struggle
for their immediate needs. Marxists have
always censured the reformists who put off
the fulfilment of socialist ideals to the dis-
tant future; and who maintain that the
basic interest of the workers lies in protect-
ing their present interests. By no means do
the Communists ignore the everyday needs
of the working people. On the contrary, they
proceed from the premise that under capital-
ism these interests can be upheld only by
revolutionary parties, bringing the working
class step by step to the solution of the
basic tasks. Unmasking the falsehood and
hypocrisy of all reformist and bourgeois
parties. which prattle about reforms, Lenin
said: “We try to help the working class to
get the smallest possible but real improve-
ment (economic and political) in their situa-
tion and we add always that no reform can
be durable, sincere, serious if not seconded
by revolutionary methods of struggle of the
masses. We teach always that a Socialist
Party not uniting this struggle for reforms
with the revolutionary methods of working
class movement can become a sect, can be
severed from the masses, and that that is
the most pernicious menace to the success
of the clear-cut revolutionary socialism.”
(From Lenin’s English original.)

The immediate slogans put forward by
the Party are clear to the people; the struggle
for their achievement adds to their con-
sciousness. The Communists have never
ceased exposing the outmoded capitalist sys-

or

is
e

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 31

tem, but they consider it wrong to advance
slogans which only criticize and do not say
what should be done now, and how. Lenin
always opposed the putting forward of slo-
gans which would only “sharpen the con-
sciousness of the proletariat against im-
perialism.” He wrote: “The ‘negative’ slogan,
not linked with a definite positive solution,
does not ‘sharpen’ but blunts consciousness,
for such a slogan is nothing but a worthless
phrase, a meaningless cry, an empty decla-
ration.” (Collected Works, Vol. 23, Russ. Ed.,
p. 60.)

The slogans advanced by the Party indi-
cate that it understands the particular situa-
tion, its peculiarities and the real sentiment
of the masses. It will be recalled how the
Bolshevik Party resolutely opposed those
who, immediately after the February Revo-
lution, imposed socialist slogans on it, as
slogans of action, calling for the overthrow
of the Provisional Government. The Party
came to these slogans through a series of
intermediate stages, when the masses came
to the understanding that not a single vital
task facing the country could be solved
without the overthrow of this government.
The Party did not advance socialist slogans
directly. It fought for peace, and the logic
of the struggle showed that the war could
not be terminated without abolishing the
bourgeoisie and landlords. The Party fought
for bread, and experience told the masses
that the hungry could not be fed as long
as power remained in the hands of exploiters.
The same can be said about the “land to
the peasants” slogan and others, for the
realization of which the Bolsheviks rallied
the masses. Simple, democratic appeals un-
derstandable to all and correctly reflecting
the needs of the people, helped enormously
in the revolutionizing of the masses, encour-
aged their initiative and engendered many
forms of struggle by the working people.

An important feature of the present revo-
lutionary movement is the drawing closer of
the immediate tasks facing the working peo-
ple, defense of their daily needs, to the
fundamental problems of transforming capi-
talist society as a whole. The very concept
of immediate demands is changing. Indeed, un-
der monopoly rule any movement for high-
er wages, against unemployment, for pen-
sions, etc., cannot but infringe on the inter-
ests of the monopolists who completely domi-
nate the state.

The extent to which the concept of immedi-
ate demands has broadened is seen more clear-
ly in regard to the struggle for peace and

against nuclear weapon tests. The workers
are now directly, vitally interested in this
struggle, for their very existence depends
on its success. In the age of atomic wea-
pons, the political experience of the working
class and of all working people teaches them
that defense of peace and the movement
against the aggressive foreign policy of the
imperialist states are not an abstract politi-—
cal protest, they are vitally important to
every family.

Defense of peace, national independence
and democratic liberties and the fight for
agrarian reform have now become the urgent
tasks that can rally the different sections of
the population in most capitalist countries.

When Communist parties, in some Latin
American countries, for example, put for-
ward a program of demands such as protect-
ing and extending civil rights and liberties,
safeguarding natural resources from seizure
by foreign capital, higher wages and aid to
the small farmers and share-croppers, thev
are fighting for the common demands that
impel all sections of the population to joint
action.

Notable progress in building this unity has
been made, in particular, by the Chilean
Communists. In 1958 the presidential candi-
date supported by the Communist Party re-
ceived seven times more votes than in 1952
—only 30,000 votes less than his opponent.
The political movement which has developed
around the working class and the Front of
Popular Action has acquired unprecedented
power of attraction also in the countryside,
which had always been regarded as the pil-
lar of reaction. Some petty-bourgeois and
bourgeois parties have joined this Front;
Socialist-Communist unity and co-operation
with the democratic parties has become
stronger.

The rich experience acquired by the Ita-
lian Communist Party has enabled it to rally
different sections of the population around
concrete demands. As a result of the defeat
of fascism and the growth of a mass move-
ment, the people won a new Constitution
which, although preserving the capitalist
system, contains a number of articles pro-
viding for reforms of a progressive and
democratic character. And the ruling classes,
violating the Constitution in every way, re-
fuse to implement reforms. As for the Com-
munist Party, it is organizing the mass
struggle for the defense of democratic liber-
ties and their extension, for carrying out the
articles of the Constitution.

32

The Party constantly advances proposals
concerning the problems facing the country
as a whole and the various strata of the
population. The Communists waged a strug-
gle for years in Parliament and outside it,
before the peasants’ pension law was en-
acted. They organized a powerful movement
of share-croppers and tenants against arbi-
trary abrogation of agreements by the land-
owners. At the moment the Communists are
heading a mass movement against the high
cost of living. Workers, artisans, women and
shopkeepers are taking part in this struggle.

Revolutionary practice confirms that only
the constant activity of the Communists and
their initiative in all spheres of public life
can spread the Party’s influence among the
masses. This is what Lenin had in view
when he wrote: ‘We cannot be satisfied with
the fact that our. tactical slogans lag behind
events, being adapted to them after they
have occurred. We must see to it that these

slogans lead us forward, illuminate our
path .. .” (Collected Works, Vol. 9, Russ. Ed.,
p. 132.)

In order to be able to act in this way the
Communist parties endeavor to rely more
on the mass organizations where independent
action by the working people develops and
from which active members and capable
leaders emerge. These are first of all the
trade unions—the biggest organizations of
the working class—co-operatives, women’s,
youth and sports associations. It is only
through these organizations that the fight for
a united front can be successful. Experience
shows that political campaigns conducted by
the party without involving its branches in
the plants, villages and residential district:
in the town inevitably turn into campaigns
chiefly of a propaganda character, whereas
every initiative immediately assumes a dif-
ferent character when all the branches take
part in it. As a rule, diverse forms of initia-
tive and new forms and methods of work
appear, by means of which the Party broad-
ens its influence and reaches the various
groups of the population.

At its XIth Congress the Finnish Commun-
ist Party which, as we know, wields consider-
able mass influence, devoted special attention
to strengthening and extending the network
of branches. The Finnish Party provides in-
structive examples of the way in which
many branches learned quickly to react to
the burning topics of the day—both of a
general political nature and those affecting
the people of a given locality. Some Party
organizations initiated a struggle for better

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

conditions. A number of territorial branches
won prestige by vigorously campaigning for
new roads, water supply and power sta-
tions; establishing contact with the people,
the Communists found out their needs and
helped them to resolve their difficulties. Such
branches become a school of activity for all
Communists, for it is the activity of the
members that largely determines the effect-
iveness of the Party as a whole.

All the experience of the communist move-
ment teaches that the parties which want to
become a really effective and_ significant
political factor in the life of their country,
always conduct an active policy, do not con-
fine themselves solely to propaganda and
criticism, but advance slogans and proposals
that can provide a basis for united action
by broader masses of the people. The word
“masses” is now interpreted more widely;
that is why the Communist parties strive
to work among various strata of the popu-
lation and merge all the rivulets of popular
discontent into one mighty anti-imperialist
stream.

Unity of the Party is the Condition for
Successful Influence on the Masses

To lead the masses and fulfil its leading
role, the Party must be united on the basis
of Marxist-Leninist principles. Cohesion and
discipline are a basic condition for any or-
ganized activity by the Party. Where there
is dissension and lack of unanimity within
the Party, there can be no successful leader-
ship of the masses. First, agree among your-
selves; that is what could be said to the
representatives of such a Party.

At the same time, internal unity depends
on how closely the Party is linked with the
masses. The idea of unity as something
maintained artificially, as something resem-
bling a mechanical discipline, has always
been alien to Communists. The Communist
party is a community of like-minded people
who devote themselves toa great goal and
constantly feel their responsibility to the
people for the defense of their interests, for
their destiny.

In his Left-Wing Communism Lenin, ex-
plaining how the discipline of the working-
class revolutionary party is maintained, how
it is tested and reinforced, gave first place
to the consciousness of the members, their
devotion to the revolution, perseverance, self-
sacrifice and heroism. Secondly, the unity of
the proletarian vanguard is determined by ‘“‘its
ability to link itself with, to keep in close
touch with, and to a certain extent, if you will,

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 33

to merge with the broadest masses of the toil-
ers—primarily with the proletariat, but also
with the non-proletarian toiling masses.”
(Works, Vol. 31, Russ. Ed., p. 8.) And, finally,
the party’s unity is conditioned by the cor-
rectness of its political strategy and tactics
“provided that the broad masses have been
convinced by their own experience that they
are correct.” (Ibid.).

The latter-day revisionists are ready to hold
forth against sectarianism, dogmatism and
everything that hampers closer contact with
the masses. But this is sheer hypocrisy. At-
tacking the very foundations of the revolu-
tionary ideology and seeking to turn the party
into a debating society, they strive to divert
it from working among the masses. The under-
mining activities of the revisionists temporar-
ily weakened the contact of some parties with
the working people. A disruptive role, in this
respect, one which weakened the Party, was
played by Axel Larsen, ex-chairman of the
Danish Communist Party, by Gates in the
United States and by other revisionists. The
parties broadened their contacts after the re-
visionists had been unmasked and their dis-
ruptive activity paralyzed.

Revisionists, like the reformists of all hues,
are transmitters of bourgeois influence in
the labor movement; they adapt themselves
to the less conscious workers. Of course,
tailing behind the movement and adapting
one’s self to backward sentiment are also
forms of “contact” with the masses, but it

is contact which signifies dissolution of the-

Party and its disappearance as the guiding
and organizing force of the movement. Marx-
ism-Leninism on the other hand regards
contact with the working people as the es-
sential condition for guiding them and lead-
ing them forward.

Revisionism is now the main danger in
the communist movement. And though at
first glance it may appear that the revision-
ists stand for contact with the masses, they
in fact divorce the party from the masses,
depriving the latter of their vanguard and
severing the correct relations between the
party and the working people. The danger
of becoming isolated from the masses should
be seen also from the other side. We can-
not afford to overlook self-complacent, doc-
trinaire, rigid sectarianism, which, on the
basis of stereotyped recipes, imposes on the
Communist party simplified methods of re-
solving the complex problems of the labor
movement. Sectarianism signifies denial of
the need to learn from the masses, reluc-
tance to find ways and means of bringing

the party closer to the different sections of
the working people.

There is nothing accidental in the fact
that revisionism and sectarianism, despite
the outward show of opposition, always ap-
pear on the scene whenever the situation is
aggravated. When the Russian Marxists com-
bated the revisionist liquidators after the
defeat of the 1905 Revolution, Lenin charac-
terized the sectarians who had then become
active as “Liquidators turned inside out” inas-
much as they wanted,. by divorcing the
Party from the masses, to lead it, in fact,
to self-dissolution. This aptly expressed in-
terconnection between revisionism and sec-
tarianism is confirmed by many examples
from the practice of the Communist parties
in the different countries. In Canada, for
example, the revisionists, denounced by the
Labor Progressive Party, have aligned them-
selves with Trotskyites, trying jointly to
organize a new party.

The report on the political situation in
France after the referendum, made at a meet-
ing of the Central Committee of the Com-
munist Party, calls for vigilance in relation
to the danger from the Right and from the
Left. “From the Right we can expect mani-
festations of opportunism engendered by the
success of the advocates of the new Con-
stitution...

“It is likewise necessary to beware of the
danger of sectarianism which could lead to
isolation from the working masses .. . It is
possible,” says the report, “that the numer-
ically small but active members of the
opposition, who have set themselves the aim
of striking at the Party’s unity, will become
more furious, attacking both from the Right
and from the Left.”

Combating revisionism and sectarianism is
part of the struggle for the masses, for a
broad anti-monopoly front.

The communist movement in each coun-
try has its objective difficulties. its specific
conditions. But the international communist
movement as a whole is now developing in
conditions where the socialist camp is rapid-
ly gaining in strength, where the influence
of the ideas of peace, democracy and social-
ism, spreading more and more, is becoming
irresistible. All the Marxist-Leninist parties
are becoming mass parties, genuine leaders
of the nationwide struggle. Proof of this
is the valiant work of the biggest Commun-
ist parties in Western Europe. and the swift
growth of the Communist parties in Asia and
Latin America. Even the smallest parties
will, in due course, overcome their weak-

34 WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

nesses and win the majority of the working
class. This can be seen from the revolution-
ary practice of our time. The successful acti-
vities of the Spanish Communist Party
which, working underground, organized a
mass movement on May 5, 1958, when in
one way or another millions of Spaniards
protested against the fascist dictatorship;
the impressive success of the Left forces
in parliamentary elections in a number of
countries; the growing influence of the Vene-
zuelan Communist Party, whose activities
have more than once been instrumental in
frustrating attempts at reactionary coups

d’état—these and many other examples con-
firm Lenin’s words that the strength of the
vanguard—the party—is “ten, a hundred and
more times greater than its numbers.”

Confident of victory, the Marxist-Leninist
parties are celebrating the 40th anniversary
of the international communist movement ini-
tiated by the Russian revolution and marked
by the founding of the Communist Interna-
tional. Tirelessly rallying all progressive and
democratic forces, they are winning, in-
creasingly, the confidence and support of
their peoples in the fight for peace and
socialism.

Some Aspects of the Liberation
Movement in Latin America

Pedro Reyes

ECENT developments in Latin America

emphasize with renewed force that we
are living in the epoch of the liberation of
mankind from imperialist domination, when
millions of people are taking part in making
history, millions whom the oppressors had
only yesterday prevented from stepping out
along the highroad of progress.

Another large group of nations has begun
a determined fight for peace and a bright
future. The Latin American peoples, noted
for their freedom-loving traditions and their
contribution to the treasure-house of world
culture, have joined with the other peoples
in resisting the threat of war and the law-
lessness of the imperialist enslavers. The
balance of political forces in the world is

changing once again in favor of the camp:

of peace and progress.
In May 1957, the people of Colombia over-

threw the Rojas Pinilla tyranny, one of the,

most reactionary regimes in the Western
Hemisphere. In January 1958, the same fate
befell Pérez Jiménez in Venezuela; the fas-
cist dictatorship of this North American
stooge collapsed under the impact of demo-
cratic, anti-imperialist mass actions. And on
February 23, 1958, the reactionaries suffered
a setback in the general elections in Argen-
tina, one of the largest countries on the con-
tinent. The democratic liberation struggle is
gaining momentum in Cuba. The flames of
anti-imperialist mass actions are _ burning
more brightly in other countries also.

The U.S. imperialists no longer conceal
their profound alarm over the developments
in Latin America. They realize that this vast
and rich area, the plunder of which in the
last century was one of the main reasons
for the swift rise of U.S. capitalism, and
which is now important from the standpoint
of realizing the aggressive schemes of the
Wall Street finance oligarchy, is slipping out
of their grip. The imperialist vultures shud-
der at the thought that the Latin Americans
will realize their age-old dream of establish-
ing unity within each country and through-
out the entire continent, which will enable
them to cast off the fetters of foreign op-
pression and take the path of independent
development.

The best sons of our peoples — José
Marti and San Martin, Simon Bolivar and
Alejandro Petion and many others — dream-
ed of and fought for a united Latin Amer-
ica, free from foreign oppressors. But the
schemes of the foreign sharks and their class
confederates in the Latin American coun-
tries prevented realization of the noble as-
pirations of the patriots. And the same
schemes exert their influence on the course
of events to this day.

The reason why Yankee imperialism is
still able to appropriate Latin American
wealth is, above all, that it is aided and
abetted by the comprador and bureaucratic
bourgeoisie. Hence the political instability
and recurring coups d’état in our countries.

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 35

“The banana of Central America, the oil of
Venezuela and, to sweeten the pill, the sugar
of San Domingo and Cuba, bring the fortune-
seekers greater profits when they rely more
on the big stick than on the polling booth
where the people can express their own
will,” is the just comment of Romulo Galle-
gos, ex-President of Venezuela.

The comprador bourgeoisie (including
banking), now fused with the latifundists, is
numerically a negligible group. In Argen-
tina, for instance, it comprises only 0.7 per
cent of the gainfully employed population.
Yet this bourgeoisie, jointly with its North
American partners, owns the lion’s share of
Latin American wealth. In Mexico, foreign
firms (excluding “mixed” firms) own 23 per
cent of the national wealth. Seven million
Mexican families live on the scanty sum of
less than 3,000 pesos a year, while some
50,000 big bourgeois or landlord families
have annual incomes of over 300,000 pesos
each. What is more, these parasites, mill-
stones on the people, are served by retinues
of menials — petty-bourgeois elements em-
ployed by the North American companies or
providing a ‘national’ label for the imper-
ialist “mixed”? companies, lawyers, officials,
and generals, always ready to sell themselves
to the highest bidder. Having risen to lead-
ing rank in the administration and in the
army, having aligned themselves with the
landlord and dollar aristocracy and amassing
profits from contracts or becoming partners
in foreign companies and local banks, these
people form the so-called bureaucratic bour-
geoisie.

The basic contradiction, which our patriots
are concentrating on solving, is that between
the North American imperialists, pursuing a
culonialist policy with the backing of com-
prador and bureaucratic capital, on the one
hand, and the vast majority of Latin Amer-
icans who aspire to be masters of their own
countries, on the other hand. Attainment of
economic and political independenc2 is the
principal national task of the Latin Amer-
ican countries at the present stage.

Unity is the essential thing needed to solve
this cardinal task. But no two unities are
alike. There is, for instance, the “unity” of
governments in the form of the Organization
of American States, with the U.S. playing
the leading role. This “unity,” torn, it is true,
by internal strife, is no doubt beneficial to

Washington, for without it the latter would
find it rather difficult to pursue the policy
of military gambles or foist its provocative
designs on the United Nations. As for our

peoples, this “unity,” far from freeing them
from brutal exploitation, only tightens the
noose of North American bondage around
their necks. “The symbol .of pan-Americanism
is not the white rose of democracy extolled in
Washington. It is rather a crown of thorns
for Latin America . . . The priestly robe, the
dollar and the.sword — such is the gloomy
combination which bars the .road to pro-
gress,” once noted the Mexican weekly,
Siempre, not without reason.

We also know another variant of Latin
American unity. It was proposed a year and
a half ago by the Peruvian President Prado
who propagated the idea of a “Latin unity”
embracing Latin America, Franco Spain,
Salazar’s Portugal, France and Italy. More-
over, Prado conceived this bloc as a coun-
terweight to the socialist camp and also to
Arab nationalism. It is fairly clear that even
this “unity” hardly promises prosperity for
Latin America, although it might help us in
competing with North American goods on
the West European market.

What we need is a unity of another kind,
namely, the unity of all the patriotic forces
vitally concerned with safeguarding sover-
eignty, achieving economic independence,
establishing multilateral commercial and dip-
lomatic relations, democratization of the
state system, democratic agrarian reform and
a higher standard of living. Only unity of
this .kind can. ensure the success of the
liberation movement both in each country
and throughout the continent.

None of us, of course, forgets that des-
pite their common dependent position in the
capitalist world system, historical destiny,
spiritual make-up,. traditions of liberation
struggle and geographical proximity, the
Latin American countries are far from be-
ing uniform. Each has its own national pec-
uliarities and different level of development.
Suffice it to recall that along with the poli-
tically independent countries of Central and
South America there are Puerto Rico, Jam-
aica and Guiana where millions are still
enslaved.

Only a thorough. analysis of the features.
and conditions of each country will enable
the working people to find the specific forms
of struggle and the ways and means of solv-
ing their vital problems.

What is common to all our countries is
that they have one main enemy — U.S. im-
perialism — which lends its backing to in-
ternal reactionaries and foments strife. This
enemy can be defeated only by the concer-

36

ted efforts of all our peoples, relying on the
solidarity of the world liberation movement.

The question arises: what social force is
capable of forging the unity so desired by our
peoples?

Perhaps the peasantry? We are deeply con-
vinced that its dispersion, disunity and grow-
ing stratification prevent it from leading this
movement. This circumstance, however, in
no way changes the undeniable fact that the
countryside will play a tremendous part in
the liberation movement in Latin America.
But this will happen only when it rallies
around anti-imperialist and peasant slogans.
In order: to awaken-the masses in the coun-
tryside we must solve-another fundamental

antagonistic’ contradiction — between the
big landlords and the bulk of the landless
peasants.

Some may think that the national bour-
geoisie is capable of building Latin Amer-
ican political unity and solving the ag-
rarian problem. But for the most part this
bourgeoisie is weak economically and _ poli-
tically, fears the activity of the working peo-
ple, constantly dithers and tends toward
compromise.

In the past, capitalist enterprises in Latin
America were founded by aristocrats, mer-
chants or people who made fortunes by serv-
ing foreign oppressors. The national indus-
trial bourgeoisie as a more or less crystal-
lized social stratum took shape later than
the proletariat and has feared it all the time.
By and large, this bourgeoisie appeared in
the more developed South American coun-
tries at the turn of this century and gained
strength during World War I and in the
30s.

Many industrialists in Mexico (15,000 out
of 49,000) belong to the National Chamber
of Manufacturing Industry. In Brazil, these
sections have their National Industrial Con-
federation and comprise some 4 per cent of
the gainfully employed population. In Chile,
they constitute about 10 per cent; the na-
tional bourgeoisie here is represented by the
Factory Development Society, consisting of
28 associations of industrialists in the chem-
ical, soap-making, timber, footwear, textile
and food industries. In Argentina, it com-
prises 6.6 per cent of the gainfully employed
population.

The national bourgeoisie is an essential
factor in the liberation movement. The an-
tagonisms between this stratum and foreign
imperialism are of a long-term character,
while alliances with foreign capital are tem-
porary and transient. Such alliances were

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

actually formed during the post-war boom
and the acute stage of the cold war, when
the U.S. imperialists tempted the national
bourgeoisie in Latin America with the pros-
pect of pots of gold for their participation
in the Marshall plan and in the so-called
mixed companies. Of late, however, this situ-

‘ation has changed radically. North American

imperialism is experiencing acute difficulties
abroad, and the U.S. economy is suffering
from profound upheavals. Nowadays the U.S.
capitalists are hitting hard at their “allies”
of yesterday.

In some of the countries the national
bourgeoisie placed its hopes in state capital-
ism. But by means of loans granted by the
Export-Import Bank, through concessions for
exploring and exploiting the nationalized
mineral deposits and through the numerous
army of “experts” and “advisers” in the
various government bodies and companies,
U.S. capital is sapping the positions of this
sector and taking control of it. This was the
case, for example, with the steel industry of
Chile. At first the Yankees did their utmost
to prevent the establishment of this branch
of industry, and it was only on the insis-
tence of the people that a state-owned plant
was built; then the Americans proposed a
loan, seized the Compania de Acero del Pa-
cifico, subordinated it to Bethlehem Steel
and paralyzed the local steel plants. The
U.S. monopolists also launched bitter attacks
against the national airlines and especially
against the state-owned oil-extracting and
refining companies. In recent years they have
registered substantial success in this respect
in Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, Costa Rica,
Guatemala and some other countries. This.

naturally, cannot but affect the national
bourgeoisie.

Lastly, we should mention one more sec-
tion — the small business men, artisans,

shopkeepers and so on. How numerous these
strata are, can be seen from the fact that in
Argentina they comprise about one-third of
the gainfully emnloved population, or over
two million people. Here, traders and shop-
keepers. not manufacturers. predominate.
These elements also include some categories of
salaried employees. Their incomes are rather
low, and it is difficult to distinguish between
them and the urban pettv bourgeoisie (low-
paid office workers. handicraftsmen and so
on). These strata, fairly active politically, are
extremely heterogeneous. The lower sections
hecome “declassed” and proletarianized. As
for the leaders of the political parties ex-
pressing their interests, they are extremely

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 37

unstable and spineless. Parties of. this kind,
naturally, cannot lead the popular movement
to victory, though they constitute an impor-
tant factor in the anti-imperialist struggle.

Thus a characteristic feature of the deve-
lopment of the Latin American bourgeoisie
today is sharp differentiation and polariza-
tion of its forces.

Another important feature is the growth
of anti-imperialist and, above all, anti-U.S.
sentiment among the national bourgeoisie.
The general advance of the anti-imperialist
struggle carries it along, too, especially those
of its members to whom the present and
future of their country are dear.

It will be seen, then, that the position of
the Latin American bourgeoisie is somewhat
contradictory. On the one hand, its econo-
mic interests run counter to those of mon-
opoly capital and, on the other, it is still
dependent on this capital to a large degree.
The economic and political interests of a
part of the bourgeoisie are closely linked
with the interests of the big landowners. In
contrast to the West European bourgeoisie
which fought for its rule together with the
people and against the aristocracy, the Latin
American bourgeoisie, almost from its incep-
tion, united in most cases with the land-
lords and imperialists against the peasantry,
against the working class, and against the
masses generally. Hence the restricted nature
of the bourgeois-democratic reforms. Des-
pite the fact that in many of our countries
the national bourgeoisie at times participates
in administering the state, the key positions
in the economy and administration are held
as before by the spokesmen of big capital
and the landowning aristocracy. Lastly,
geographical remoteness from the center of
the world liberation movement and proxim-
ity to the center of world reaction tend to
make the national bourgeoisie more coward-
ly.
That is why, in our opinion, it would be
wrong to anticipate that the national bour-
geoisie will bring the liberation movement
in Latin America to a victorious end and
ensure the independent development of these
countries.

There is only one class in these countries
capable of heading the liberation struggle —
the working class.

The working class first rose against the
domination of foreign capital early in the
20th century and made the first sacrifices in
this struggle. All the major steps in the di-
rection of achieving the economic indepen-
dence of Latin America were initiated by the

proletariat. Suffice it to recall, for example,
that the Mexican government nationalized
the oil in 1938 as a result of the general
strike of the oil workers; and carried out the
most far-reaching agrarian reform in Latin
America at the demand of the agricultural
workers who went on strike in Laguna,
Yucatan and New Lombardia. The Bolivian
tin mines, too, were nationalized only after
a whole series of strikes in which “hundreds
of mine-workers lost their lives. The Colom-
bian government founded: a state-owned .0oil .
company after a 50-day strike in 1948.

The industrial proletariat in Latin Amer-
ica has grown into a powerful force. Its
numbers have doubled compared with pre-
war. All in all, over 10 million workers are
employed in industry, transport and building
in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay,
Venezuela, Peru and Colombia. But it is not
only a matter of the numerical growth of the
working class. Note should be taken of the
growing concentration of the proletariat in
factories. There are now dozens of plants
each employing five thousand and more
workers in Brazil, Chile, Argentina and some
other countries.

What is more, the proletariat has the sup-
port of the tens of millions of agricultural
workers, in contrast to the national bour-
geoisie which has no broad base in the coun-
tryside. In Brazil alone out of eleven million
people employed in agriculture there are
nearly five million agricultural workers and
landless semi-proletarians.

Thus, the working class in the Latin Amer-
ican countries has become the decisive force
in industry and agriculture. It is becoming
a more powerful independent political force.
The logical outcome of this is the tremendous
growth of the role of the working class in the
national-liberation movement.

The advanced workers of our countries are
becoming increasingly aware that the pro-
letariat, more than any other class, is inter-
ested in winning national independence and
abolishing the feudal survivals and the land-
Jord monopoly of land; they also realize that
it alone can rally around the banner of na-
tional liberation and regeneration all the pat-
riotic, democratic forces and lead to victory
the struggle for national dignity and free-
dom, for national sovereignty and social pro-
gress.

While defending the national interests, the
working class persistently upholds its class
interests and vital rights against encroach-
ments by foreign imperialism and the sub-
servient comprador bourgeoisie. Recent years

38

will go down in history as years of an un-
precedented upsurge of the labor movement,
above all in the strike movement in Central

and South America. It is doubtful if our’

countries have ever seen such bitter strikes
as those fought in 1957 and 1958.

New features can now be observed more

clearly in the strike movement.’ Growing
trade-union unity, greater solidarity between
the various sections of the working “tlass,
more frequent support of the workers by
revolutionary peasants, students and shop-
keepers, and the rallying of government em-
ployees, students and pensioners around the
working class, the waging'‘of political gene-
ral strikes — such are the’ new features of
the present strike movement which testify
to: the growing maturity of the proletariat.

‘Latin: America, clzarly, is entering.a phase
of naw isharp and persistent class battles —
such ‘is the indisputable conclusion.

‘The ‘intensified struggle of the working
class is awakening and inspiring the masses,
showing them the way 'to solve the national
tasks. The main thing, however, is that the
working class of our countries is tempering
and sharpening the weapon without which
it cannot fulfil its mission — the revolution-
ary proletarian parties. These parties are
taking shape and gaining strength in the
crucible of bitter class battles. The feature
of the present stage of the liberation move-
ment in Central and South America is that in
a number of countries the Communist parties
are becoming the leading force of the working-
class and general democratic movement.

The Communist parties were born as anti-
imperialist, patriotic organizations, uphold-
ing the sovereignty of their countries and
democratic liberties. In the fight for democ-
racy and against the dictatorships imposed
by U.S. imperialism. the parties gave their
best sons, such as Julio Antonio Mella and
Jesus Menendez in Cuba; Simon Herrera
Farfan in Peru: Farabundo Marti in Salva-
dor; Fredy Valdes in the Dominican Repub-
lic; Guadalupe Rodriguez in Mexico; Alberto
Candia in Paraguay; Ingalinella in Argentina;
Elcias Molina in Colombia; Wainwright in
Guatemala, and tens of thousands of other,
nameless heroes. Their blood waters the tree
of freedom now growing on Latin American
soil.

That is why the reactionaries persecute
the Communists so ferociously. They see in
them the most consistent and organized
force of the national-liberation movement.
Recent events, however, have convincingly
shown the futility of the attempts of the U.S.

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

imperialists and their stooges to destroy the
Latin American Communist parties.

True, in some countries the pressure of
the working-class movement and the other
progressive forces has not been strong en-
ough to overthrow the reactionary regimes
and secure elementary democratic liberties,
particularly the legalization of the Commun-
ist Parties. Up to now the fighters for free-
dom are brutally persecuted in Cuba, Gua-
temala, the Dominican Republic, Paraguay
and in other countries. But in many of them
the working class has been able to strike a
telling blow at the enemies of democracy.

The legalization of the Chilean Commun-
ist Party was a big success for the masses.
Speaking of this victory, Elias Lafertte, the
Party chairman, justly remarked: “Our en-
emies, being enemies of the people and of
our country, sought to make us live in the
catacombs and drove us underground. But it
was the people themselves who returned to
us the position of a legal party, the recog-
nized vanguard which is guided by the scien-
tific principles of Marxism-Leninism, the
principles of the working-class and the na-
tional-liberation movement.” The Argentine
Communists have upheld the legality of their
Party. In Brazil, the Communist Party has
virtually emerged from the underground.
Under popular pressure the anti-Communist
laws have been abrogated in Venezuela and
Colombia.

In the last 15 years the proletariat of Pan-
ama, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua,
Guatemala, Bolivia and Honduras have
formed their Communist parties. Every Latin
American nation now has its own Commun-
ist Party. It goes without saying that the
stranglers of democracy are still a long way
from being rendered harmless and they still
cling to their foul designs. But the fact that
in most countries they are no longer able
to deny the Communists and other workers’
organizations the right to legality is a big
gain for the workers and all working people.

When their frontal attack on the Com-
munist parties failed, the internal and exter-
nal reactionaries sought to take revenge by
resorting to “Troian horse” tactics. And here
the splitters and revisionist elements offered
their services.

Activization of the revisionists is espe-
cially dangerous for our countries, for they
paralyze the revolutionary spirit of the work-
ers and the other toilers precisely in the
period of the rise of the liberation move-
ment. Just as sectarianism constituted a
danger to our Communist parties during the

—— © CT en OF DD KR =e

ao

cl

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 39

temporary decline, when they were driven
underground, and when they were striving
might and main to retain their positions in
the legal mass organizations; so _revision-
ism, for its part, is dangerous during the
upsurge, for it retards the forward move-
ment, the enlightening of the million-fold
masses who for the first time are being
drawn into political life and who turn to the
Communists in search of a correct policy.

This, of course, does not mean that we
regard the struggle against sectarianism and
dogmatism as a minor task. The experience
of some of our parties clearly shows that
dogmatism and sectarianism can be the main
danger at certain stages of their develop-
ment. That is why they are firmly rebuffing
both the revisionists (including the expulsion
of those who have sided with the enemy)
and the sectarians.

The reactionaries have failed also in their
attempts to drive a wedge between the Com-
munists and the Socialist groups and parties.
The conference of the Latin American So-
cialist parties, held in Chile in the spring of
1958, took a clearly anti-imperialist stand
for the first time in the history of socialism
on this continent. The right-wing Socialist
groups, which subserviently raise the bogy
of anti-communism, are discrediting them-
selves and are being isolated. And converse-
ly, whenever the Communists and Socialists
act jointly, as was the case during the re-
cent elections in Chile and Brazil, the work-
ing people gain substantially. We should note
the gratifying circumstance of the establish-
ment of contacts between the Communists
and the democratic parties with anti-imper-
ialist programs (Accion Democratica in Ven-
ezuela, the Trabalhista Partv in Brazil, Left
parties participating in the Fronte de Accion
Popular together with the Communists and
Socialists in Chile, and so on).

Striving for unity of action by all working
people, the Communists are working to weld
the anti-imperialist patriotic forces in each
country into a united front. In carrying out
this line the Communists have no intention
of going to extremes. They are aware that
only through class struggle will the prole-
tariat be able to build a broad democratic
front, in which those sections of the national
bourgeoisie to whom the country’s interests
are dear will also be active participants. The
journal Nueva Era justly editorialized: ‘Unity
of all the people does not presuppose the
disappearance of the contradictions between
the various classes and social strata. The
contradictions between the working class

and the bourgeoisie, between the rich far-
mers and poor peasants and farm laborers,
will not disappear in a national-democratic
front. They will manifest themselves, and it
is not for the Communists to conceal them.
But the method of their solution must ne-
cessarily take into account whether it is a
matter of internal contradictions, between al-
lies, or of those between allies and enemies.
The latter must be dealt crushing blows and
attacked with a view to dividing and break-
ing up their ranks and abolishing them as a
class; the allies should be criticized in order
to make them go forward, eliminate their
inconsistencies and vacillations and consol-
idate the unity of the masses.”

Of great significance is the fact that solid
foundations for a worker-peasant alliance —
the backbone of the national and_ social

liberation front — are being laid in the
course of the struggle for independence and
progress.

Heretofore the peasants looked on the city
only as an exploiter, but now that the work-
ers with growing frequency are supporting
their struggle for land and decent conditions,
they are beginning to understand that the
workers are their true allies and friends and
that they will be able to uphold their rights
only in alliance with the working class.

True, the peasant masses in Latin Amer-
ica are only beginning to move, to awaken
to active struggle. The peasant movement is
at varying levels in the different countries.
But everywhere changes are already evident.
Peasant organizations, upholding the inter-
ests of the rural working people, are being
formed for the first time. The peasants are
more resolutely entering the struggle for a
solution of the burning national problem —
a radical agrarian reform which would meet
their demands and provide favorable condi-
tions for the successful economic develop-
ment of each country. On the plantations
and in grain-growing areas actions by the
peasants and farm laborers are on the in-
crease. In some parts of Colombia, Cuba,
Bolivia and Brazil the peasants are waging
an armed struggle for land. Joint actions by
workers and peasants are becoming more
frequent in Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Mex-
ico and other countries. These are the her-
alds of powerful peasant movements in Latin
America.

The growing worker-peasant alliance has a
future that is all the greater now that other
social strata are beginning to join it — the
strata exploited and oppressed by the lati-
fundists, comprador bourgeoisie and foreign

40 WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

capital. The reactionaries have failed to
isolate the working class and set against it
the middle sections, the natural allies of the
proletariat.

Growing inflation and rising taxes, the
high cost of living, the exceedingly acute
housing crisis, unemployment and other in-
evitable consequences of the imperialist
yoke are helping the middle sections in town
and countryside to understand that there is
only one way out — active, resolute strug-
gle in defense of the national interests and
their vital rights. This conclusion is being
drawn also by those intellectuals who refuse
to become reconciled to Yankee imperial-
ism’s brutally trampling on the culture, tra-
ditions and dignity of their nations. Students,
too, are becoming increasingly active in the
anti-imperialist movement. All this means
that the conditions are ripening for building
a broad front of struggle for a progressive and
patriotic national policy.

The historic mission of resolving this task
has fallen to the working class which, by
virtue of its nature and position in contem-
porary society, is the most consistent cham-
pion of the national interests.

As for the national bourgeoisie and its
parties they, as mentioned previously, claim
a monopoly in leading this movement; but
having made a step forward, they usually
retreat, vacillate and often take the path of
anti-communism which, for them, is disas-
trous.

In these conditions everything depends on
how firmly the working class and its parties
will be able to lead the growing movement.
The stronger the fighting capacity and unity
of the proletariat, the stronger the Commun-
ist parties and the higher their prestige, the
broader will be the general democratic, anti-
imperialist front of struggle. The worker-
peasant alliance will be the sole reliable
foundation of this front. The independent and
leading role of the proletariat, effected
through the guidance of the Communist
Party, is the decisive condition for the suc-
cess of the liberation movement. This fac-
tor determines, in the long run, the attitude
of the national bourgeoisie also. Despite its
class narrowness and its fear of the struggle
of the working masses, this bourgeoisie will
be drawn into the general democratic, anti-
imperialist movement on a greater scale,
provided the proletariat heads the movement
and fights courageously to solve the vital

problems of the anti-feudal, anti-imperialist
revolution.
* *

To sum up: Latin America is on the thresh-
old of epoch-making changes. The great battle
for national dignity and freedom is being
joined in all parts of the continent. A new
period is approaching — one of awakening
of the broad sections of the population of our
countries.

The champions of national freedom are
inspired by the fact that the balance of forc-
es in the world is becoming more favorable
for their just cause. Gone are the days of un-
challenged imperialist rule. Although the
countries of the great socialist world sys-
tem are many thousand miles away from
Latin America, the existence of this system
has a beneficial influence on the destiny of
the people in the Western Hemisphere. The
experience of the dozens of Afro-Asian coun-
tries which have won political independence
in the postwar years convincingly proves
that, with the existence of the powerful so-
cialist world system and the rapid growth
of the democratic forces throughout the
world, the U.S. propaganda to the effect that
the non-socialist countries have no _ alter-
native but to join the military-political blocs
formed and headed by Washington is utterly
groundless.

It will not be easy to break down the bar-
riers standing in the way of freedom and
progress of the Latin American countries.
This task can be carried out only through
joint action by those to whom the national
dignity and freedom are dear. The consolida-
tion of all democratic and progressive forces
is the key to the solution of the problems
facing the peoples of Central and South
America.

It is to this noble task that the Latin Am-
erican Communists are devoting their ener-
gies, rallying ever broader masses of the
people. The words of Manuel Gonzalez Pra-
da, the bard of justice and freedom, who
keenly felt his country’s lack of men who
would rouse the masses to struggle against
national and social oppression, have a pro-
phetic ring: ‘The time has come, the dawn
is breaking, the hard days of sorrow and
darkness are departing, above the groaning
of the down-trodden, disillusioned people the
cry of victory can be heard . . . Come on,
you grave-diggers: the leper is in his death
agony, the grave is ready to receive him.”

FRO A

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 41.

Combating the Bourgeois Rightists
In People’s China

Hsu Ping

HE success registered on the political,

ideological and cultural fronts in the
course of the rectification campaign and the
struggle against the Right bourgeois elements
initiated in 1957 under the leadership of the
Communist Party acted as a stimulus to last
year’s big leap in output.

After the socialist revolution on the eco-
nomic front, the rectification campaign and
the struggle against the Rights can be regarded
as a revolution in the spheres of politics and
ideology. In this revolution the people have
won decisive victory for the socialist as
against the capitalist path. The struggle
against the bourgeois Rights who had attack-
ed socialism was a vital part of the revolu-
tion. It not only culminated in their defeat,
it also gave the masses a good lesson in so-
cialist education, resulting in further consoli-
dating the dictatorship of the proletariat and
the leadership of the Communist Party.

The Rights in our country are a tiny hand-
ful of bourgeois reactionaries who are fighting
against the Communist Party, the people and
socialism. They are found among the capita-
lists and intellectuals and also in the demo-
cratic parties. Most of them are counter-revo-
lutionaries, elements drawn from the national
bourgeoisie; some of them, former landlords
and representatives of bureaucratic capital,
have not capitulated completely; among them
are also former members of the Kuomintang
reactionary clique. In the summer of 1957
the reactionaries took advantage of the recti-
fication campaign to launch vile anti-Commu-
nist, anti-popular and anti-socialist activities.
They aimed their blows at the socialist sys-
tem, the dictatorship of the proletariat and
the Communist Party leadership. They reject-
ed the socialist path and entertained the
fantastic dream of restoring capitalism. In
the main their standpoint boiled down to (1)
lauding the bourgeois economic and political
system and bourgeois culture; (2) opposing
basic state policy such as, for instance, for-
eign policy and the policy of democratic and
socialist changes; (3) denying the achieve-
ments of the people’s democratic revolution,
the socialist revolution and of socialist con-

struction, denying the ability of the Party
and the proletariat to govern the state and
the need for this leadership; (4) opposing
the Communist Party’s leadership of state
affairs and attempting to usurp leadership.

The anti-socialist nature of these activities
shows that in the transition period the strug-
gle between the bourgeoisie and the proletari-
at is being waged around the two paths of
development—the capitalist and the socialist.
The outcome of this battle is a foregone con-
clusion because over 90 per cent of the people,
including the vast majority of the bourgeoisie
and bourgeois intellectuals, are taking the
socialist road and accepting Party leadership.
The Rights alone—an insignificant minority
comprising no more than 10 per cent even
among the bourgeoisie — have rejected the
socialist road.

It is common knowledge that, prior to the
emergence of the People’s Republic, China
was a semi-colonial, semi-feudal country in
which the basic contradictions were those
between the people and their three bitter ene-
mies: imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic
capital. The revolutionary movement, headed
for many years by the Communist Party, was
an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal movement,
bourgeois-democratic in character. The Chi-
nese bourgeoisie—that is, the national bour-
geoisie (mainly the middle and petty strata)
and not the bureaucratic-comprador bour-
geoisie (mainly the top strata) who then
occupied a dominant position and against
whom the revolution was aimed—was in con-
flict with imperialism, the feudal forces and
bureaucratic capital.

The dual nature of the national bourgeoisie
came to the fore in the course of the bour-
geois-democratic revolution. On the one hand
it was willing, under certain conditions, to
participate in the struggle against imperialism
and the reactionary Kuomintang rule but, on
the other, it vacillated in the course of the
struggle and favored conciliation. This dual
character was observed repeatedly during the
new democratic revolution when the national
bourgeoisie traversed a zig-zag path. At first
it participated in the revolution, then it went

42

over to the counter-revolution; later, it adopt-
ed a neutral wait-and-see policy, which was
followed by another switch when it again
sided with the revolution. On the eve of the
victory of the revolution, and in view of
the U.S. imperialists’ brutal aggression and
the utter degeneration of the Kuomintang
ruling clique, it realized that reactionary rule
held out no perspective. The working class
had powerful armed forces and the revolu-
tion, sweeping aside all obstacles, was win-
ning victory after victory. So the national
bourgeoisie had to make up its mind quickly
about the road it would follow. In overcom-
ing its hesitation a big part was played by the
united front policy of the Communist Party
which exerted every effort to win over and
re-educate the national bourgeoisie. The result
was that the great majority of its members,
together with many people from landlord
and bureaucratic capitalist circles as well as
from the Kuomintang reactionary clique
followed the working class along the road
of the democratic revolution and, together
with it, embarked upon the socialist revolu-
tion.

Those who joined the working class during
the new democratic revolution and now par-
ticipate in the socialist revolution are widely
representative. They include the national bour-
geoisie and people from different walks of
life. But in taking part in the bourgeois-
democratic revolution they nurtured subjec-
tive hopes; many of them banked on taking
China along the path of capitalist develop-
ment. It was not surprising, therefore, that
as the socialist revolution deepened, it en-
countered the opposition of a small group of
bourgeois Rightists.

With the proclamation of the Chinese Peo-
ple’s Republic, the country entered upon a
transitional period in which the basic internal
contradiction was the struggle between the
proletariat and the bourgeoisie, between the
socialist and the capitalist paths. As Comrade
Mao Tse-tung pointed out in March 1949 at
a plenary meeting of the Central Committee
of the Party: “After the victory of the Revo-
lution throughout the country, there will still
be two kinds of basic contradictions in China.
The first will be inside the country, namely,
the contradictions between the proletariat and
the bourgeoisie. The second — outside the
country, namely, the contradictions between
China and the imperialist countries.”

At the stage of the socialist revolution the
Communist Party, taking into account the po-
sition of the national bourgeoisie in the revo-

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

lutionary movement, pursued the policy of
utilizing, restricting and transforming, with
a view to ensuring the abolition of capitalist
private property by peaceful means, that is,
by compensation and, through the medium of
ideological re-education, to induce the bour-
geois elements to relinquish exploitation and
live by their own labor. This policy conflicted
with the class interests of the bourgeoisie,
with the result that many of its members
either opposed this policy or resisted it. And
so at a certain stage, the policy of restricting
and transforming on the one hand, and the
opposition to it on the other, became a form
of the class struggle in our country, a strug-
gle that reflected the basic class contradiction
in China—that between the working class and
the bourgeoisie. Throughout several years of
ceaseless struggle the Party not only repulsed
the frequent and fierce onslaughts of the
bourgeoisie, it worked out a series of meas-
ures designed to reconstruct capitalist indus-
try and trade—namely, to turn the capitalist
enterprises into state-capitalist enterprises
through joint state-private control as the first
step and, as the second, to switch from state
capitalism to socialism.

The upsurge early in 1956 of the move-
ment for the three great changes—the recon-
struction of capitalist industry and trade,
agriculture and cottage industry—showed that
the socialist revolution had won a decisive
victory on the economic front (in the owner-
ship of the means of production). As we
know, the Chinese bourgeoisie in 1956 did not,
in the main, resist the socialist changes. The
explanation is that, economically, they had
no other way. Furthermore, as a result of
the conflict between restriction and recon-
struction on the one hand, and those opposed
to them on the other, many of the national
bourgeoisie realized the hopelessness of op-
posing the proletariat. Moreover, after imple-
menting joint state-private control, the peo-
ple’s government undertook to ensure them
a place in economic and political life. Thus,
the bourgeoisie, hard pressed by circum-
stances, to the sound of drum and trumpet
gave its assent to the changed system of
ownership. ;

As pointed out in the Declaration of the
Moscow meeting of the Communist and Work-
ers’ Parties, “the overthrown bourgeoisie al-
ways endeavors to make a comeback; the
influence exerted on society by the bourgeoi-
sie, the petty bourgeoisie and their intelli-
gentsia is still great. That is why a fairlv
long time is needed to resolve the issue of
who will win—capitalism or socialism.”

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 43

The experience of our country confirms
once again that the socialist revolution is
the most consistent, far-reaching and exten-
sive revolution on the economic, political and
ideological fronts. The basic change in the
system of ownership has not completely re-
solved all the problems of the socialist revo-
lution on the economic front. So far the sys-
tem of ownership has not been changed com-
pletely; the material base of socialism—mod-
ern socialist industry and agriculture—is noi
as yet sufficiently developed; nor have the
problems of the socialist revolution on the
political and ideological fronts been complete-
ly solved. Hence the class struggle is not yet
over. The question, “who will win’”—socialism
or capitalism—has not been solved complete-
ly. The struggle will be hard and prolonged,
and, at times, even acute. The situation is
such that the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois
intellectuals are forced to recognize the reor-
ganization of the ownership system; but they
are reluctant to relinquish their political and
ideological positions. And until their political
and ideological re-education along socialist
lines is completed, conflict between them and
the working class is inevitable.

The bourgeoisie and the bourgeois intellec-
tuals are the main force capable, during the
transition, of measuring swords with the pro-
letariat. They have scientific knowledge and
experience in running industry, they partici-
pate in the work of government bodies and
occupy political positions. In a word, they
have political capital and exert political in-
fluence; and the working class needs their
knowledge.

Thanks to the ideological re-education
movement which has now been under way for
several years, big changes have taken place
among the former bourgeois eleménts and
intellectuals; they have now split into Left,
intermediate and Right groups. A small Left
section has taken shape as a political Left
wing and joined forces with the working
class. The main force of the national’ bour-
geoisie occupies an intermediate position; they
are distinguished by their dual policy and
their ‘relations with the working class” are
determined by the class struggle between
the two ways—the socialist and capitalist.
Although they have not become completely
reconciled to the changes in the ownership
system and the need to submit to proletarian
leadership, these intermediate elements can,
nevertheless, take the socialist path and recog-
nize the leadership of the proletariat; hence
the contradictions between them and the
proletariat, as a rule, take the form of con-

tradictions among the people. It is only the
bourgeois Rightists who are reactionaries and
counter-revolutionaries. Politically speaking
they are agents of imperialism, of the land-
lord class and bureaucratic capital. As the
socialist revolution forged ahead, the Rights
played the hypocrite, shouting “Long live the
Communist Party!” and acclaiming the
achievements of socialism. But deep in their
hearts they cherished the hope of attacking
socialism at the first opportunity, with the aim
of restoring capitalism. i

The Rights launched their base onslaught
against the people and the Communist Party
in the summer of 1957, having wrongly
assessed the home and international situa-
tion. The campaign against the Communists;
against the people and against natiomral: inde-
pendence, a campaign which the imperialists
and reactionaries in all countries have been
prosecuting ever since the 1956 events in
Hungary, created what the Rights took to be
a favorable international situation. They also
regarded as favorable the political situation at
home arising from the rectification move-
ment against subjectivism, sectarianism and
bureaucracy; this movement, initiated by the
Central Committee of the Communist Party,
called upon the people, including bourgeois
elements and intellectuals, to express their
views on the shortcomings and mistakes of
the Communist Party. Initially, the Rights
intended to seize the leadership in the cul-
tural, educational and scientific spheres, in
the press and in publishing, calculating that
subsequently they could spread their influ-
ence throughout the country. But their efforts
to draw the factories and the people of the
countryside into their subversive activities
failed utterly, thanks to the decisive opposi-
tion of the workers and peasants. The Rights
did meet with a measure of sympathy in
offices, educational establishments and orga-
nizations employing large numbers of intel-
lectuals. But the moment they began their
drive, their real physiognomy revealed itself
with the result that they found themselves
blocked and rebuffed by the masses.

The question arises—if the contradiction
between the Rights and the people is the
same as the contradiction between ourselves
and our enemies, if the Rights are reaction-
aries and enemies of socialism—why are they
not subjected to repressions? Clearly in our
state where we have the democratic dictator-
ship of the people, dictatorship methods, that
is, methods of suppression, could be used
against all enemies of socialism, and we could
deal our enemies powerful blows. But’ in

44

handling the contradiction between the people
and the bourgeois Rights as one of the con-
tradictions between our enemies and our-
selves, we, as heretofore, employ the method
of persuasion (full and broad expression of
views, discussion, citing facts and elucidating
truth) in relation to all Rights with the ex-
ception of those who, despite repeated warn-
ings, do not reform, persevere in their dis-
ruptive activities and break the law. The
method of persuasion is based on confidence
in the overwhelming majority of the people
and gives free rein to initiative. Its applica-
tion facilitates greater activity by the people
and helps to expose and isolate the Right
elements and furthers differentiation among
them. It enhances socialist consciousness
among the people and helps them to disting~
uish clearly between the socialist and capi-
talist paths.

. This method facilitates the education of
the intermediate bourgeois elements and intel-
lectuals, helps to win them over and remold
them in the spirit of socialism. Hence it is
used also.among the Rights with a view to
enhancing the division in their ranks and re-
educating the overwhelming majority. Natur-
ally, we are still on the alert, for we realize
that, in view of the class struggle, the exist-
ence and emergence of Rightists is inevitable
for some time yet, and that their influence
cannot be rooted out straightaway. There is
no doubt that some of them will never change.
Given certain circumstances, new Right ele-
ments may appear and, in collaboration with
those we have at present, launch a new of-
fensive. We shall then again have to deal a
retaliatory blow, to isolate them and divide
them. Our aim is gradually to reduce the
numbers and influence of the Rights by wag-
ing an unceasing struggle to split their ranks,
to win over and remold the majority of the
bourgeoisie and bourgeois intellectuals by
way of persuasion and education.

How is it that Right elements are to be
found in the ranks of the Communist Party?
There is nothing strange in this. Our Party
is the powerful leading force in the socialist
revolution and socialist construction, and it
goes without saying that the Chinese Com-
munists must be revolutionary. The ranks of
the Party are, of course, pure. But our Party
is not isolated, nor is it walled off from
society. Every time important social changes
occur, whenever there is a sharpening of the
class struggle and new political and ideo-
logical changes are carried through, there
are inevitable repercussions within the Party.
Clearly, when they joined our Party many

WORLD MARKXIST REVIEW

people thought in terms of the tasks of the
national-democratic revolution. Upon joining,
some ostensibly recognized the rules and pro-
gram; in reality they merely adopted its mini-
mum program, that is, the tasks of overthrow-
ing imperialism, winning national indepen-
dence and carrying through the bourgeois-
democratic revolution. They did not adopt the
Party program of building socialism and com-
munism.

The socialist revolution in China, more-
over, was accomplished without violence and
although this has had its advantages for the
working class and the entire people, it has
aggravated the political and ideological strug-
gle. Most of the Rights who have been ex-
posed and expelled from the Party came from
the exploiting strata: some were alien class
elements who had wormed their way into
the Party. These included profiteers and ad-
venturists who joined the Party for mercenary
motives. Some, under the impact of rotten
bourgeois ideology, became corrupt and lost
their revolutionary will; then there are those
who seek personal power or who are opposed
to the fundamental policy of the socialist
revolution and, hence, are dissatisfied with
the Party. Taking the path of bourgeois in-
dividualism, they slipped gradually, landed
in the morass with the bourgeois Rights and,
in the long run, betrayed the Party’s cause.
In the course of the struggle the mask was
ripped off these traitors and they were driven
out of the Party. This strengthened the Party,
and was a big victory for it.

In the socialist revolution on the political
and ideological fronts, our Party has once
again combined the universal truth of Marx-
ism-Leninism with the concrete practice of
the revolution in China and, proceeding from
the general laws of the socialist revolution,
has creatively elaborated its political and
tactical lines. In combating the Rights and
the revisionists, it simultaneously fought the
dogmatists. The dogmatists, resorting to pri-
mitive and crude methods of compulsion,
sought to suppress the Rights and revisionists
who fanned the evil wind. But there could be
no radical solution of the problem by these
methods. The dogmatists feared a widespread
airing of views, for they lacked faith in the
strength of the working class and the masses,
they did not believe in Marxism-Leninism. In
reality their outward “Leftism” reflects their
“Right” essence.

Our Party, basing itself on Comrade Mao
Tse-tung’s instructions, foresaw this inevitable
struggle and prepared accordingly. It reso-
lutely pursued the policy of: granting the

ET

See

PS Te

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 45

Rights the opportunity to voice their views,
declaring that it did not fear the poisonous
weeds, that it would uproot them and use
them as fertilizer. Objectively the poisonous
weeds exist, but it would have been injudi-
cious to have stopped their sprouting or to
have stamped out the shoots as they appear-
ed; this would have been a method born of
lack of knowledge of the tactics of class
struggle. The root of the evil would have
remained intact and much more effort would
subsequently have been required to discern
and uproot the weeds. Our Party firmly be-
lieves in the masses’ ability to recognize and
uproot them. We permitted these weeds to
appear initially so that later they could be
more conveniently uprooted and used as fer-
tilizer, and in order to train and steel our
worker-peasant teams in dealing with them.

As a result of the struggle the anti-Com-
munist, anti-popular and anti-socialist Rights
were completely isolated and a cleavage oc-
curred among them. After the victory over
them another telling blow was delivered at
the counter-revolutionaries and malefactors
who still remained and who were subverting
the socialist cause. The socialist system gain-
ed considerably in strength. In the struggle
against the Rights and in the campaign against
extravagance and conservatism which follow-
ed, and in the process of the big advance
in industry and all sectors of socialist con-
struction, the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois
intellectuals who had taken a middle-of-the-
road attitude and had not complete confidence
in socialism, changed or are changing their
former political outlook. The majority of them
already realize that “circumstances compel”
them to continue their forward march, that
they cannot simply continue to mark time in
the middle of the road. They are beginning
to become conscious of their dual attitude
towards the socialist revolution, to appre-
ciate the need to rectify their erroneous views

and have even voiced their determination to
remoid themselves, “to give their hearts” to
the Party, to turn “Left.” Many intellectuals
have taken an active part in the rectification
movement and announced their readiness io
become both “Red and expert,” genuinely Red
and highly qualified; some have gone among
the people and, engaging in manual labor,
have established real contact with the work-
ing masses.

The struggle against the Rights has resulted
in big changes in the political sentiments of
the working people. The faulty style of work,
mirroring the survivals of bourgeois ideology,
is vanishing, while the communist spirit is
becoming stronger. The productive forces of
society are now developing at an unprece-
dented rate, for the great achievements of
the socialist revolution have created objective
opportunities for a big leap in production.
The revolution is clearing the way for the
steady growth of the productive forces. All
the conservative systems and antiquated
views which do not conform to the require-
ments of the expanding productive forces
are on the way out, and new systems and
new ideals in tune with these requirements
are demonstrating their viability.

Having overthrown the exploiters and got-
ten rid of the fetters of bourgeois ideology
and obsolete ideas, the Chinese people, under
the leadership of their Communist Party and
Comrade Mao Tse-tung, have raised aloft
the Red banner of the general line of socialist
construction and have released powerful revo-
lutionary energy. Industry, agriculture and
construction are making rapid progress. The
technological and cultural revolution, develop-
ing apace, is really nationwide in scope. Great
indeed are our achievements. The great so-
cialist People’s China, now that it has a base
for a modern industry and agriculture, for
modern science and culture, will be built at
an accelerated rate.

Among Our Contributors

PIETRO INGRAO is a member of the Secretariat of the Central Com-
mittee of the Italian Communist Party;

HSU PING is deputy head of the department of united front work in che
Central Committee of the Communist Party of China;

TADEUSZ DANISZEWSKI is director of the Institute of History of the
Polish United Workers’ Party and a member of the C.C. of the

PUWP;

J. R. CAMPBELL is the editor-in-chief of the British “‘Daily Worker’’.

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

We Have Carried Out
Karl Liebknecht’s Behests

Wilhelm Pieck

“C'TEADY! We have not fled, nor have we

been routed. And should they put us in
irons, we will still be here and we will re-
main! And victory will be ours! Whether or
not we will be alive when the goal is reached,
our program will live on and will rule the
world of emancipated humanity. In spite of
everything!”

When these words appeared in the Rote
Fahne on January 15, 1919, their author, Karl
Liebknecht; was dead. Brutalized counter-
revolutionary officers had murdered him and
Rosa Luxemburg in the Eden Hotel. The in-
stigators of this foul crime sat in the big
banks and government offices. Placards with
the call: “Kill Liebknecht” had appeared long
before the murder. The reactionaries hoped
that by resorting to terror they would deal 2
mortal blow to the revolutionary movement
and the newly-founded Communist Party. But
Karl Liebknecht was right: neither the mur-
der of workers’ leaders, the persecutions in
the Weimar Republic, nor the terror of the
Hitler dictatorship—to which Ernst Thael-
mann fell victim—could prevent the triumph
of our program in a large part of Germany.

Only a short while ago the working class
celebrated the 40th anniversary of the No-
vember Revolution in Germany. Then, on
December 30, we observed the 40th anniver-
sary of the Communist Party of Germany and
on January 15 we commemorate the anni-
versary of the death of Karl Liebknecht and
Rosa Luxemburg.

When the revisionists became active at the
turn of the century, a Left revolutionary
trend arose in the German Social-Democratic
Party. Rosa Luxemburg and Clara Zetkin
urged the expulsion of the reformists and re-
visionists, but when the Centrists, including
August Bebel, refused to support them, Lux-
emburg and Zetkin did not pursue th2 matter
further. However, despite errors, weaknesses
and failure to understand certain questions 2f
strategy and tactics in the new conditions,
the German Left selflessly defended the revo-
lutionary principles of the labor movement
and proletarian internationalism.

Karl Liebknecht was a fearless leader of
the German workers. A man of outstanding
ability, he put his whole heart into the cause
of the emanciptaion of the working class,
into the struggle for socialism. He mercilessly
exposed Prussian reaction and militarism,
which poisoned the life of the German peo-
ple.

Karl Liebknecht was the teacher, friend and
inspired leader of the German youth. His
objective was to educate the young people
in a spirit of opposition to the system of
militarism, which degraded human dignity and
killed the ability to think independently. As
founder and leader of the Youth Interna-
tional, as organizer of socialist papers for
the youth, he constantly strove to rally them
against militarism. In campaigning against
imperialist war he appealed above all to the
working-class youth, who responded by self-
lessly serving the revolutionary cause.

Liebknecht, who entered the lists against
German imperialism long before 1914, became
particularly active when the war clouds began
to gather. In speeches in the Reichstag he
exposed the foul machinations of the indus-
trialists who made millions on war contracts.
He laid bare the conspiracy of world capital
against peace.

“Our country is in danger,” he declared on
April 26, 1913, “but the danger emanates
from enemies at home, rather than from
enemies abroad, above all, from the inter-
national war industry.”

It was a tragedy for the German labor
movement and the entire people that the
Left wing—led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa
Luxemburg — though it fought bravely for
their interests, was unable to win over the
majority of the Social-Democratic Party. Its
leadership was increasingly influenced by the
opportunists, who initially displayed a con-
ciliatory attitude towards the war prepara-
tions and later, on August 4, 1914, voted for
the first war credits and openly deserted to
the war camp.

This treachery reaffirmed the incontrovert-
ible Marxist truth that the working class can
not achieve its aim without a revolutionary

SATE NE als

BE AEDT a i POM BA TAT

sient = =e,

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 47

party. The slogans of the Left, calling for
the preservation of peace, undoubtedly coin-
cided with the demands of the people, but
the Social-Democratic leadership and the nu-
merous Party officials were opportunist. They
controlled the Party press and other means of
molding public opinion, and used them with-
out scruple to achieve their demagogic pur-
poses. That is why the Left could not prevent
the betrayal.

Although the German Social-Democratic
Party had long suffered from the lack of an
ideological unity based on Marxism, the for-
mal unity of revolutionaries and opportunists
within a single party concealed the internal
split. Hence, the view held by the Left—that
their stay in a party disrupted by opportunist
activity was vital for the unity of the labor
movement—proved to be a tragic misconcep-
tion.

The Kaiser’s government regarded the en-
dorsement of the war credits by the Social-
Democratic group as the formation of a “front
of national unity.” Karl Liebknecht’s defiant
“NO” to the second War Credits Bill, voted
on December 2, 1914, nullified the false na-
tional unity built on an imperialist basis.
Liebknecht alone spoke on behalf of millions.
His speech was the only ray of hope for the
working people in the nightmare of the world
slaughter. The chauvinists hurled invective
against Liebknecht and threatened him.

His speech was no less significant inter-
nationally. Whereas the clamor raised after
August 4 about “national ‘unity” helped the
imperialists of all countries to suppress the
anti-war sentiment and the peace movement,
Liebknecht’s militant call stimulated the
growth of the anti-war forces. “Each step of
ours in the fight against the imperialist war,”
he said, “evokes a response abroad, thereby
intensifying the struggle for peace.’ Karl
Liebknecht inspired the fighters for peace
everywhere.

The Left forces rallied more closely 2round
Ka: Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. Begin-
ning with the spring of 1915 they held more
and more anti-war demonstrations. Having
formed the “International” group in January,
1916 (later re-named the “Spartacus Group”
and “Spartacus League”), the Left heroically
fought for freedom and peace, using legal and
illegal means. Their appeals and leaflets—
the so-called Spartacus letters and others—
were circulated throughout the empire and
at the front, acquiring international signifi-
cance. But their struggle was hampered by
persecution, arrests, imprisonment and con-
scription.

A big rally was held on May 1, 1916, on
the Potsdamer Platz. At this gathering Lieb-
knecht proclaimed the slogan which echoed
in every corner of the world: “Down with
the war! Down with the government!” Brought
before a military tribunal he spoke proudly
of his activities and denounced the rulers of
imperialist Germany as war criminals. Reply-
ing to the accusation of treason, he said: “I
have no need to defend myself. But since trea-
son is mentioned, I can say that it has long
been the privilege of the ruling classes, the
princes and aristocrats. It is a ‘glorious’ tra-
dition with them. Those really guilty of trea-
son are not yet in the dock, for they are in
control of heavy industry, the munitions
plants, the big banks and the Junker es-
tates... 5."

The monopoly bourgeoisie, the military
caste and the state machine were not alone
in attacking the Left. To the shame of the
German working class the leaders of the So-
cial-Democratic Party and the trade unions
joined in. They still held key posts in the
legal organizations of the workers. These trai-
tors enabled the Kaiser and his government
to continue the criminal war in spite of the
growing strike movement and anti-war dem-
onstrations.

The anti-war movement was greatly stimu-
lated by the February Revolution in Russia.
The idea that peace could be won only by
destroying the imperialist state machine found
increasing support among the German people.

The imperialist government was overthrown
under the direct impact of the Great October
Socialist Revolution in Russia. German and
Russian soldiers fraternized. At home demon-
strations were held demanding an end to the
war and the liberation of Liebknecht.

Karl Liebknecht enthusiastically welcomed
the Russian revolution. Despite the scanty
information he realized its epoch-making sig-
nificance. On the fourth day of the Revolu-
tion he wrote that revolutionary socialist
changes and economic progress in Russia
would open up boundless prospects. “I would
like to help,’ wrote Karl Liebknecht from
his cell, “if it meant sacrificing my life a
thousand times; I would like to be with the
others to work for the Russian revolution
and peace.”

Karl Liebknecht was released on October
23, 1918, as a result of the military and poli-
tical collapse of the Hohenzollern regime and
the struggle of the masses for peace. His
first greetings were addressed to the young
Soviet Republic. A few days later, in an
appeal to the workers and soldiers of the

48

Entente countries, he urged them to support
the Russian Soviet Republic and to turn their
weapons against world imperialism. He wrote:
“In-the conditions of the upheaval caused by
the world war and the chaos created by the
collapse of the autocratic imperialist regime,
the Russian proletariat despite misunderstand-
ing, hatred and slander has established its
rule — the Socialist Republic of the workers,
soldiers and peasants! This is a colossal un-
dertaking aimed at building a new socialist
world, the beginning of the struggle for the
cause which has now become the historic
gcal of the world proletariat... .

“The working class of the world will not
permit the cradle of the socialist revolution
to be destroyed, unless it wishes to see its
own forces sapped and its hopes wrecked.
The downfall of the Russian Soviet Republic
would signify a defeat for the world pro-
letariat. Friends, comrades, brothers! Turn
your arms against your rulers! Long live
the Russia of the workers, peasants and sol-
diers!”

In Germany, too, conditions made it pos-
sible to put an end to the imperialist war.
On October 7, 1918, while Liebknecht was
still in prison, an All-German Conference of
the “Spartacus Group” was held. It was at-
tended, among others, by Left radicals from
Bremen. The Conference adopted a program
of action in anticipation of a revolution,
particularly, a decision concerning the work-
ers’ and soldiers’ Soviets. But the Spartacus
movement was not as yet aware of the neces-
sity for an independent mass party based
on sound organizational principles. Notwith-
standing the courageous and consistent strug-
gle waged by the Spartacists against the war,
they were still a relatively small group of
revolutionary Marxists.

Along with the Spartacus people there were
the authorized representatives (‘revolution-
ary delegates”) who were engaged in prepar-
ing the revolution in the localities. These
delegates had been elected in the factories by
the workers, chiefly in the metal-working
industries. After his release from prison Lieb-
knecht returned to Berlin where he tried to
convince the revolutionary delegates of the
need to rally the workers for mass action.
But the latter, influenced by the leaders of
the Independent Social-Democratic Party*,

*The Independent Social-Democratic Party of Gertaany was
formed early in 1917 as a result of the split in the Social-
Democratic Party, whose outspoken chauvinist policy more
and more evoked the indignation of the workers. The revolu-
tionary-minded rank-and-file Social Democrats joined the
Independent Partv. But leadership of the new party was in
the hands of the Kautskvite centrists who opposed the
war as petty-bourgeois pacifists and spread illusions about a
“democratic peace” without the revolutionary overthrow of

WORLD MARKXIST REVIEW

hesitated to call a general strike. However,
it was already impossible to restrain the
revolutionary zeal of the masses. Hence, the
call of the Spartacists for direct action was
taken up by the workers of Berlin who, on
November 9, together with the soldiers, took
to the streets. Thus the revolution was
launched.

The avalanche overwhelmed the age-old
monarchy and put an end to the war. Demo-
cratic rights and freedoms, for which the
working class had fought for decades, were
gained. Freedom of assembly, association and
of the press were proclaimed. Workers’ and
Soldiers’ Soviets after the Russian model were
set up in the Lands (districts) and in nearly
all the towns. Their aim was to do away
with capitalism. Yet they were incapable of
fulfilling the role of revolutionary organs of
power because of the Social-Democratic lead-
ership. Many of the workers who for years
had been trained by the Social Democrats
to believe in the omnipotence of parliament,
maintained that a republic with bourgeois-
democratic freedoms and in particular with
universal suffrage was equivalent to the
conquest of political power and hence to
securing the conditions for the victory of
socialism. This concept found wide currency
at the All-German Congress of Soviets on
December 16, 1918, which refused to concen-
trate all power in the hands of the Soviets,
and thereby facilitated the work of the coun-
ter-revolution. Confident of victory, the work-
er-members of the Soviets failed to see that
Ebert and Scheidemann had wormed their
way to power and created a government of
“people’s representatives” in order to strangle
the revolution.

The Spartacus leaders realized that a popu-
lar victory had not yet been secured. That
is why they demanded that the state appara-
tus be purged of all counter-revolutionaries,
that the property of the big capitalists be
alienated, that the big landlords, princes and
generals responsible for the war be expropri-
ated and brought to trial, that the reactionary
forces be disarmed and the revolutionary
workers armed; they called for a single, un-
divided socialist German Republic; for an alli-
ance between the German and Russian revo-
lutionary movements. In order to carry out
these tasks the Spartacus Group rallied the
masses and sought to win them over. It was
then the only political force capable of giving
the German working-class—on the basis of

the bourgeois government. In the belief that it could facilitate
the revolutionary re-education of the masses, the Spartacus
Group joined the Independent SDPG.

i i

— Fh FO oe i eel list

a

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 49

a Marxist analysis of the situation—correct
guidance, of showing the way out of the
national catastrophe and of taking Germany
along the road of democracy, peace and so-
cialism. But it was impossible to regain what
had been lost. Lenin’s conclusion of that
period, that “the great tragedy of and the
danger to Europe is that it lacks a revolu-
tionary party,” applied in full measure to
Germany.

Spartacist influence over the working class
was insufficient to prevent the betrayal of
the revolution by the Social-Democratic lead-
ers, because the group was still in the ranks
of the Independent Social-Democratic Party,
and was subjected to persecution and vilifi-
cation. It did not have a sufficient number
of functionaries capable of explaining to the
masses the counter-revolutionary essence of
the policy of the Social Democratic leaders
and their “Independent” supporters, people
who could convince the working class of the
necessity to develop the revolution further.
Party functionaries are molded and steeled
only in the ranks of a solidly united and in-
dependent Marxist-Leninist party.

In 1918 the objective conditions in Germany
were ripe for the bourgeois-democratic revo-
lution evolving into a socialist revolution.
But the absence of a proletarian party which
could guide the working class in abolishing
the bourgeois system as a whole, and not
only the monarchy, made it possible for the
opportunists to maintain their grip on the
masses, and this factor determined the range
and character of the German revolution. The
November Revolution did not go beyond the
framework of the bourgeois-democratic revo-
lution which was, to a certain degree, carried
out by proletarian methods and means. The
revolution failed to achieve the aims cherished
by the masses—abolition of imperialist rule
and the building of socialism.

A proletarian revolution can triumph only
if the masses are guided by a Marxist-Leninist
party—this is one of the basic lessons of the
November Revolution. The Communist Party
of Germany was formed on December 30,
1918. By forming their Party, the German
revolutionaries complied with a basic require-
ment of Marxist-Leninist theory and revolu-
tionary practice. In the subsequent years of
hard struggle against Right opportunist and
Left sectarian tendencies, the Party ma-

tured ideologically and extended its influence
over the masses. The founding of the Party
cleared the way for working-class unity on
Marxist-Leninist principles. Under the guid-
ance of Ernst Thaelmann, whose memory

will ever be cherished, the first Leninist Cen- |
tral Committee was set up. Today it is most
important to remember that the Communist
Party educated hundreds of thousands of
fighters who enjoyed the sympathies of mil-
lions of German workers and small peasants.
Our Party organized active resistance to Hit-
lerism. It is on record that hundreds of Ger-
man Communists fought heroically against
German and world fascism in the ranks of
the international brigades in Spain.

The unity of the working-class movement
on Marxist-Leninist principles—achieved in a
large part of Germany through the fusion of
the Communist and Social-Democratic parties
in the Socialist Unity Party in April 1946
—was a big victory for the working class
and a guarantee of its invincibility. This unity
was not accidental. It was the logical outcome
of many years of selfless struggle on the part
of the Communists for the purity of Marxist-
Leninist theory, their devotion to the cause
of the working class and their unbending
will and dauntless courage in defending the
interests of the people. The fact that the
Socialist Unity Party has been created, with
a policy based on the teachings of Marx, En-
gels and Lenin, means that the main lesson
of the November Revolution has been learned.

It should be emphasized that only a Marx-
ist-Leninist party is capable of waging a con-
sistent struggle against opportunism and re-
visionism. The experience of six decades in
the leadership of the German labor movement
has shown me that any attempt to divert
the Communist and Workers’ parties from the
principles of Marxism-Leninism only confuses
the working class and benefits the imperial-
ists. The undermining role of revisionism was
never sO pronounced as in 1918 when the
clique of traitors—the so-called “government
Socialists’”—having deceived the masses with
their “march of socialism” slogan—succeeded
in diverting them from the revolutionary path.
The need to preserve the ideological purity
of the Marxist-Leninist party is another im-
portant lesson to be deduced from the Novem-
ber Revolution. Revisionism is not an acci-
dental phenomenon. It was and remains an
instrument of the imperialists in their strug-
gle against the working-class movement.

After 1917 revisionism was, generally
speaking, distinguished by its more or less
concealed anti-Soviet tendencies. The German
revisionists of those days joined the im-
perialists in the fight against the October Rev-
olution and to this day have remained faithful
to this vile alliance.

50

One of the favorite methods of latter-day
revisionists in masking their positions is spe-
culation on specific, national conditions. In-
dividual countries, it is true, have specific
differences which call for the adapting of
revolutionary tactics to the concrete condi-
tions. But these specific conditions must never
be made the pretext for abandoning the gen-
eral principles of the socialist revolution, the
transition period and socialist construction.
The success of socialist construction in the
Soviet Union, the purity of Marxist-Leninist
theory, the unity and friendship of the social-
ist countries, are important gains of the
international working class, which we will
uphold to the last.

There are other lessons to be drawn from
the November Revolution. The arming of
the people was a decisive issue, for instance.
The organized working class was sufficiently
strong to disarm the enemies of the people.
But because the arms were concentrated in
the hands of the reactionary generals, and
because, on the orders of the Social-Democra-
tic Government of “people’s representatives,”
the revolutionary-minded soldiers were for-
cibly disarmed, the fate of the November Re-
volution was sealed. Power was not taken
over by the people as Karl Liebknecht and
the Spartacus Group had demanded. The re-
actionary state machine was not demolished.
The: monopolists and the Junkers retained
their property and their economic power. Mili-
tarism.and imperialism, mortal enemies of the
people, were not smashed.

Another serious weakness of the November
Revolution arose from its failure to draw
upon that mighty source of revolutionary
energy — proletarian internationalism. The
“government Socialists” disrupted co-opera-
tion between the German workers and the
workers of other lands in the struggle against
international imoverialism. Thev refused to
establish friendly relations with Soviet Russia
—the world’s first socialist state. Far from
displaying solidarity with Soviet Russia and
rendering aid to her at the crucial stage of the
Russian revolution, they supported world im-
perialism in its armed intervention against
the Soviet Republic. Thus from its inception
the Social-Democratic government was mark-
ed with the brand of Cain, as a traitor to
international working-class solidarity.

The working class of Germany has paid
dearly for the betrayal by the Right Social-
Democratic leadership of the November Revo-
lution and the continuation of that harmful
policy under the Weimar Republic. The So-
cial-Democratic leaders persistently ignored

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

the proposals of the Communists for a united

working-class front against fascism. They re-

fused to endorse a joint appeal for a general
strike in July 1932, when von Papen dispersed
the Social-Democratic government of Prussia.
They were deaf to the warning of Clara Zet-
kin, veteran of the labor movement, who in
opening the session of the Reichstag on Aug-
ust 30 spoke of the need for united action by
all workers in the hour of danger, for the
threat of a fascist coup was imminent. In
the previous general election the Nazis, by
means of demagogy, polled 13,730,000 votes.
The Social Democrats brushed aside the hand
of friendship extended by the Communists on
the day of the funeral of three workers mur-
dered by the Nazis in January 1933. And on
January 30 when Hitler came to power, the
appeal of the Central Committee of the Com-
munist Party to the leaders of the Social-De-
mocratic Party and the trade unions to declare
a strike was characterized by them as a “pro-
vocation.” Thus, by perpetuating the split in
the working class the Social-Democratic lead-
ers objectively helped the Nazis to win.

At a heavy cost the Soviet Union defeated
fascism, which had threatened world civili-
zation with destruction. And the German peo-
ple were freed from Nazi tyranny by the sons
of Red October.

In the German Democratic Republic the
working class benefited from the defeat of
Nazism by taking power into its hands. In
West Germany imperialism has again been re-
stored. The fact that this has occurred under
the Western occupation powers in no way
justifies the leaders of West-German Social
Democracy, who once again have betrayed
the cause of the working class. It is they
who are responsible for the split in the West-
German working class. This split has prevent-
ed the expropriation and removal from power
of the monopolists and Junkers, and has
made possible the re-establishment of the
shattered imperialist state machine and the
banning of the Communist Party, the true
champion of the workers’ interests. Forty
years after the November Revolution, German
imperialism and militarism, still dominant in
West Germany, have reappeared for the third
time as the main danger to peace in Europe.

But the death of Karl Liebknecht and many
Spartacists has not been in vain. The behests
of our dear comrades who gave their lives
to the cause of the working class have been
carried out in a large part of Germany—in
the German Democratic Republic. The pro-
gram drawn up by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa
Luxemburg during the November Revolution

—

ae eV tl OlUWaErlUDlS

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 51

has been translated into practice. The Social-
ist Unity Party—the working-class party of
the German Democratic Republic—is ‘firmly
founded on Marxist-Leninist principles and
is resolutely fighting all revisionist devia-
tions. The party ensures the leading role of
the working class in its alliance with the
working peasantry, in its close co-operation
with all the democratic forces. of the country
rallied in the National Front’ of Democratic
Germany—the political foundation of the Re-
public. Siar

Imperialism and fascism have been uproot-
ed in the German Democratic Republic. The
monopolists and war criminals have been
expropriated and their factories have been
transferred to the people. The militarist Junk-
ers have been removed from their estates
and the land handed over to the landless peas-
ants and peasants with small plots. The capi-
talist state machine has been broken up.
The army, police, organs of justice, adminis-
tration, public education and the other state
institutions have been reconstructed within
the framework of an anti-fascist democratic
system. The steady advance of the revolution
has resulted in the creation of a worker-peas-
ant government and the establishment of
proletarian dictatorship. In conditions of an
unprecedented economic upsurge, industrial
output has more than doubled compared with
1950. The standard of living has gone up
proportionately. Socialist enterprises are re-
sponsible for nearly 90 per cent of the in-
dustrial output. In agriculture 33 per cent of
the arable land is cultivated by producer co-
operatives. The co-operative movement among
the artisans is growing, and the share of the
state in the remaining privately-owned enter-
prises is increasing. The social revolution and
our successes in construction are the guaran-
tee that imperialism and militarism will never
return.

Good progress has been made in the field
of international relations. The supreme prin-
ciple of our foreign policy is proletarian inter-
nationalism. Friendship and close co-operation
with the Soviet Union, the Chinese People’s
Republic and the other socialist countries
have always been the cornerstone of our for-
eign policy. The German Democratic Repub-
lic is an inalienable component of the socialist
camp headed by the Soviet Union. In all
circumstances it will honor the commitments
it has taken upon itself in relation to the
other friendly nations. We maintain contact
with all interested countries on the princinle
of mutual respect and non-interference in in-
ternal affairs.

In 1918 Karl Liebknecht pointed out that
the working class is the reliable champion of
the national interests. The lessons of history
in the two parts of Germany since 1945, prove
that our national problems can be solved only
if the people are led by the working class.
With two German states in existence, the
country can be reunited only on the lines
proposed by the German Democratic Republic,
that is, through negotiations between the two
governments and the formation of a confed-
eration. The West German rulers are opposed
to this, for they are bent on atomic armament
and war.

Maintenance of peace is the keynote of
the German problem. Therefore the reunifi-
cation of Germany depends chiefly on when
the peace forces in West Germany, in friendly
co-operation with the German Democratic
Republic, will succeed in getting the Federal
Republic to pursue a policy in harmony with
the national interests of our people.

The task can now be accomplished with
greater success because the present situation
at home and the prospects for our national
development have changed considerably com-
pared with 1918. Today the German working
class in addition to its revolutionary parties
—the Socialist Unity Party and the Com-
munist Party—has a powerful base in the
form of the German Democratic Republic
which will facilitate solution of the problems
confronting the nation. Today we are in a
position to offer real and generous aid to
the West-German workers and the workers
of West Berlin. We can make wide use of our
achievements to the benefit of the German
working class as a whole. The successes of
the German Democratic Republic in socialist
construction and fulfilment of the historic
tasks set by the Fifth Congress of the Socialist
Unity Party will have a tremendous impact
on the entire situation in Germany and will
accelerate the final change in the relation of
forces to the advantage of the workers and
peasants.

Thus, in the German Democratic Republic
the behests of Karl Liebknecht, national hero
and fighter against militarism and war. hive
been carried out. The German Democratic
Republic is a bastion of peace and friendship
of the nations. blocking the way of German
militarism to the East. It has taken over the
best traditions of the German working class
and the nation. Whereas the history of the
German bourgeoisie is a history of humilia-
tion, the history of the German working class
is a history of the heroic lives and struggles
of people like Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxem-

52

burg and Ernst Thaelmann, of such heroic
fighters as the Red sailors from the People’s
Naval Division,* and the thousands of workers
who gave their lives in the struggle for the
emancipation of mankind from exploitation
and oppression.

The German working class will be worthy
of its great sons. Under the leadership of its
revolutionary party, the Socialist Unity Party,

*The People’s Naval Division, formed in Berlin after Novem-
ber 9, 1918, as an armed force of the Ebert-Scheidemann
government, later went over to the side of the revolutionary

workers. The Division twice took part—late in December 1918
and in January 1919—in the street engagements in Berlin,
and fought heroically for the Revolution.

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

the working people of our Republic are rapid-
ly and confidently marching towards social-
ism. They will render every support to the
Communist Party of Germany, now waging a
hard underground struggle, and will aid the
people of West Germany in order to pave the
way to the national resurgence of all Germany
as a freedom-loving and democratic state.
The immortal words of Karl Liebknecht will
thus be translated into practice throughout our
whole country. The program of the revolution-
ary working-class movement will, despite the
obstacles, triumph in West Germany also!

Under the Banner of Proletarian
Internationalism

Tadeusz Daniszewski

ECEMBER 1958 marked the fortieth

anniversary of the Communist Party of
Poland, the revolutionary vanguard of the
working masses in the interwar period, one
of the leading sections of the Communist
International. Together with the United Work-
ers’ Party, which carries forward the noble
traditions of the CPP, the anniversary was also
observed by the other fraternal Communist
and Workers’ parties.

The Communist Party was born at the be-
ginning of the new era ushered in by the
October Revolution. From the very outset its
ideology was imbued with the spirit of this
revolution, of relentless war against the world
of oppression and exploitation.

It came into being when Polish indepen-
dence had been regained as a result of the
Russian Revolution, and the revolutions which
took place under its impact in Germany and
Austria. The Party began its activities at
the time when the revolutionary and counter-
revolutionary forces of Poland were engaged
in the bitter struggle which decided the ques-
tion of the class character of the state.

In contrast to the other Communist parties,
which arose in most cases from the split in
the Social-Democratic parties, the CPP was
formed by the merger of the Social Democ-
racy of Poland and Lithuania (SDPL) and
the Left wing of the Polish Socialist Party
(PSP).

The SDPL, founded and led by such promi-
nent leaders of the labor movement as Rosa
Luxemburg, Julian Marchlewski, Leon Jog-

iches-Tyszka and Adolf Warski, resolutely
opposed the nationalist program formulated
in the PSP in the early nineties. The posi-
tion of the Right-wing leaders derived from
their hostile attitude to the revolutionary
movement in Russia. In contrast, the SDPL al-
ways regarded the Russian working class as
its best ally in the struggle against tsarism.
Julian Marchlewski said: “Only he who fights
for the international proletariat can fight for
the Polish people.”

During the revolution of 1905-07, the flames
of which enveloped the tsarist empire and
turned Poland into an outpost of the revolu-
tionary struggle, the SDPL supported the Bol-
sheviks against the Mensheviks on a number
of basic points of strategy and tactics. This
was particularly evident at the May 1907
Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic
Labor Party which included the SDPL. During
Lenin’s stay in Galicia, Polish Party workers
attended the meetings of the Central Com-
mittee of the RSDLP held there. The confer-
ence held in October 1913 was attended by
delegates from the SDPL.

Lenin always displayed keen interest in
the Polish working-class movement and more
than once criticized a number of erroneous
views of the SDPL and its spiritual leader—
Rosa Luxemburg. His criticism dealt particu-
larly with the national problem. Although it
was a revolutionary party, the SDPL was not
without incorrect views on some issues. But
among all the groupings of the prewar Left
wing of the Second International this Party,

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 53

together with the Bulgarian “Tesnyaks” and
the Latvian Social Democrats, was nearest
to the Bolsheviks.

The Left wing of the Polish Socialist Party,
led by H. Walecki, W. Kostrzewa and other
prominent figures in the international com-
munist movement, broke with the Right wing
in 1906 chiefly because the Lefts could not
accept the policy pursued by the Pilsudski
adherents, who wanted to dissociate them-
selves from the revolutionary movement in
Russia. The path of the Left wing of the PSP
in the direction of a consistently revolution-
ary standpoint often zigzagged, but it always
pursued a correct line in relation to the Rus-
sian labor movement.

The SDPL and the Left-wing PSP were
undoubtedly correct when, during the First
World War, they refused to orientate on either
of the imperialist groupings, and linked their
hopes for the national and social liberation
of the Polish people with the victory of the
revolution.

An. indication of their internationalism was
the mass participation of rank-and-file and
leading members, residing in Russia, in the
revolutionary battles of 1917 and subsequent-
ly in consolidating Soviet power. Many Polish
units serving in the Red Guards and the Red
Army fought valiantly against the counter-
revolutionaries at the crucial fronts. Felix
Dzierzinski, son of the Polish people and a
prominent SDPL leader, was an outstanding
leader of the Bolshevik Party. He was justly
called a hero of the October Revolution.

Towards Leninism

The Communist Party of Poland* inherited
the traditions of internationalism from its
predecessors. This was evident at its First
Congress in December 1918.

The Congress resolutions stressed the sig-
nificance of the October Revolution as a turn-
ing point in the destiny of mankind, stressed
the international character of the laws gov-
erning the transition to socialism, which the
Revolution brought to light. The Congress
urged that the example of the Russian work-
ers be followed: “The era of direct struggle
for the socialist system, the era of social revo-
lution, has set in. Revolutionary Russia has
become the pioneer in this gigantic clash
between the world that is dying and the world
that is being born.”

Carrying forward the cause initiated by the
SDPL and the Left PSP, the Polish Commu-

"Prior to the Third Congress (March, 1925) it was known

as the Communist Workers’ Party of Poland (CWPP). In
~~ article we refer to it as the Communist Party of Poland
P).

nists strove to extend to the maximum the
network of Soviets of Workers’ Deputies,
regarding them, on the basis of Soviet experi-
ence, as the embryo of proletarian power.
However, by mid-1919 the Soviets had been
crushed by the reactionaries.

The Communist Party closely followed the
struggle in other countries, expressing its
solidarity with the rising revolution in Ger-
many and with the entire international revo-
lutionary movement in which it saw its best
ally.

The Polish Communists resolutely defended
the worker-peasant state in 1919 and 1920
when the Pilsudski legions, jointly with the
aggressive forces of world imperialism, con-
ducted hostilities against the Soviet Republic.
They explained to the masses that “the war
against the socialist proletariat of Russia is
a war against the socialist proletariat of Po-
land.”

The Party raised aloft the banner of inter-
nationalism. Striving for the revolutionary
overthrow of capitalist and landlord rule, it
always regarded Poland as a link in the inter-
national front of struggle.

But it did not immediately realize that for
the overthrow of bourgeois rule it was neces-
sary to utilize all the revolutionary forces in
the country, not.only among the working class
but among the peasantry and the oppressed
nations, and that by doing this it would be
realizing its international duty. Neither did it
realize immediately that by upholding the na-
tional interests betrayed by the propertied
classes, and strengthening thereby its position
in Polish society, it would render a big ser-
vice to the international communist move-
ment.

Poland was one of the links in the Ver-
sailles system—the Eastern springboard of in-
ternational imperialism against the Soviet
Republic.

A feature of the Polish economy in those
years was the interweaving of capitalism with
numerous feudal survivals. Key positions in
industry were held by German, French, Ameri-
can, British and other capitalists. At the same
time, Polish imperialists oppressed other na-
tions, occupying Western Ukraine and Wes-
tern Byelorussia.

The task of the proletarian party in these
conditions was properly to combine the demo-
cratic and socialist demands, to launch a
direct attack on capitalism by drawing the
working masses into the struggle for common
democratic aims.

In the first years of its existence the Party
was unable to muster all the reserves of revo-

54

lutionary energy in town and countryside,
because the erroneous views inherited from
its predecessors and typical of the prewar
Left wing of the Second International pressed
heavily upon it. Although the Party led many
revolutionary battles, it was unaware as yet
of the allies the working class could rely
on. Neither did it understand who should
be neutralized and who made the object of
the main attack. This was explained by the
fact that the Party was then strongly in-
fluenced by Rosa Luxemburg’s theory of spon-
taneity; it believed that Poland, too, would
be brought into the orbit of world revolution.

In a hitherto unpublished letter to the Polish
Communists dated October 19, 1921, Lenin
pointed out that the carrying through by
internal forces of a fully mature revolution in
Poland would signify a gigantic victory on
a world scale. This revolution, in his opinion,
would help undermine the imperialist regime
based on the Versailles Peace Treaty. In this
connection Lenin emphasized the special re-
sponsibility of the Polish Communists before
the whole world.

On the basis of its own experience of big
gains and severe setbacks, and relying on
the ideological help of the Communist Inter-
national and its foremost section — the
CPSU(B) — the Party gradually became
convinced of the need for a radical change
in its work.

Among the Party leaders who consistently
sought to rectify the erroneous views, espe-
cially on the agrarian and national problems,
mention should be made of A. Warski, W.
Kostrzewa, H. Walecki, E. Brandt and E.
Prochniak.

A serious obstacle on the way to Leninism
at that time was the sectarian-dogmatic group
which, in Polish conditions, represented the
“infantile disorder” of “Left-wing commun-
ism.” This group opposed the demand for
breaking up the landlord estates and denied
the revolutionary character of the national-
liberation movement of the Ukrainians and
Byelorussians.

In the bitter struggle waged against this
group at the Second Party Congress (1923),
the Leninist ideas on the main problems of
strategy and tactics triumphed. The Congress
decisions signified the victory of Leninism in
the Polish labor movement. They clearly de-
fined the role of the proletariat as the leader
and exponent of the interests of all the work-
ing people.

The Polish bourgeoisie, which betrayed
the country to foreign capital and entered
into alliances with the German and other reac-

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

tionary forces hostile to Poland, led the peo-
ple-to catastrophe. Overcoming the sectarian
views, the Communist Party hammered out
a correct line on the vital question of national
independence. “Bourgeois rule in Poland,” the
Congress resolution read, “is a mortal danger
to her independence. Only a victorious revolu-
tion can bring state independence to the Pol-
ish people.”

The Congress called upon the proletariat
to overthrow bourgeois rule and take the
destiny of the country into its hands. The
proletariat will achieve this, it was pointed
out, by concluding an alliance with the peas-
ants demanding land and with the Ukrainian
and Byelorussian peasants fighting to throw
off the yoke of the Polish landlords and for
unification with the Soviet Ukraine and Soviet
Byelorussia. Guided by Lenin’s teaching, the
Communist Party at this Congress adopted a
consistently internationalist position, having
advanced the slogan of self-determination all
the way to secession of the nations forcibly
joined to the Polish bourgeois state.

Warmly sympathizing with the German re-
volutionary workers who at this time were
waging an armed struggle for their just cause,
the Congress stated that victory for the coun-
ter-revolution in Germany would have disas-
trous consequences for the people. “Indepen-
dent Poland, too, would meet its death in
the rivers of workers’ blood that would flow
in Central and Eastern Europe.” Only a party
equipped with Marxism-Leninism could make
such a correct assessment of the situation and
foresee the course of events.

The Congress decisions helped the Party
to reach those strata of the population which
it had been difficult to reach before. The In-
dependent Peasant Party, founded in 1924,
launched a struggle for land without compen-
sation; it recognized the leading role of the
Communist Party. Strong revolutionary peas-
ant organizations, such as ‘““Gromada” in Wes-
tern Byelorussia and “Selrob” in Western
Ukraine, were established.

At the Head of the Working Masses

The Communist Party was driven under-
ground in the first days of its existence. Its
members and leading workers were brutally
persecuted.

Here, for example, are eloquent figures
taken from official sources, dating back to
June 1925-June 1926. During this period there
were 497 anti-Communist trials; 2,431 mem-
bers were tried, the total prison sentences
constituted 3,648 years;: 6,757 Communists
were arrested. ‘

wewTZl™m

we Wwe '

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW So

The Party overcame tremendous difficulties
in the effort to maintain contact with the
workers, peasants and intellectuals. Rousing
the masses to struggle for partial demands
and common aims, it followed the Leninist
principle: “Together with the masses—at the
head of the masses.”

True, mistakes were made. Especially grave
was the “May mistake” in 1926. The Party
leadership failed to realize in time the fascist
character of the coup carried through by the
so-called Sanacja camp led by Pilsudski. This
mistake, although quickly rectified, was the
reason for the ideological and factional strug-
gle which ended only in 1929.

Under the fascist dictatorship the Commu-
nist Party was the only party that called the
working masses to overthrow the fascist-
Sanacja dictatorship and headed their strug-
gle. The Communists played a leading part in
the strike movement; they organized the fam-
ous “occupation strikes,” in which the work-
ers refused to leave the enterprises; they
headed the demonstrations and hunger march-
es of the unemployed all over the country. The
Communists led mass peasant actions in Po-
land proper, in Western Byelorussia and in
Western Ukraine. Shoulder to shoulder with
their Polish comrades a heroic revolutionary
struggle was waged by the Communist Parties
of Western Ukraine and Western Byelorussia,
which had been admitted to the CPC on an
autonomous basis. The Communists were al-
ways in the forefront, suffering the heaviest
losses in the big class battles, in the clashes
with police and troops.

The Communist group in the Sejm set an
example of the revolutionary use of a bour-
geois parliament. The Communist deputies—
Dabal, Lancucki, Krolikowski, Warski, So-
chacki, Zarski and others — boldly exposed
the reactionary policy of the bourgeois gov-
ernments, denounced the bourgeoisie and the
opportunist leaders of the Socialist Party for
slandering the first socialist state, and declar-
ed their solidarity with the international com-
munist movement.

The Communist Party was an important
detachment in this movement. On its tenth
anniversary the Executive Committee of the
Communist International sent “warm greet-
ings to the Communist Party of Poland, as
one of the best. sections of the International,
which holds aloft the banner of communism
and, in the grim conditions of fascist dictator-
ship, wages valiant struggle for the prole-
tarian revolution.”

The Party widely used the experience and
ideological help of the International. and the

{

Bolshevik Party and, in turn, contributed to
the international communist movement. Its
achievements in leading mass strikes and,
in part, the peasant movement, as well as in
combining illegal and legal forms of struggle,
in creating a network of legal and semi-legal
organizations and in publishing legal news-
papers were assessed by the International
as examples well worth following.

It was one of the first Communist parties
in the West to draw up a program.

The program adopted at the Sixth Party
Congress in 1932 stated that it was an appli-
cation of the policy-directives of the Interna-
tional to Polish conditions. It was permeated
with the spirit of genuine internationalism,
advancing the slogan of self-determination for
Western Ukraine and Western Byelorussia up
to and including secession from Poland. It
declared that the future Poland would con-
clude a fraternal alliance with the Soviet
Union and with every nation liberated from
capitalism, for the purpose of common strug-
gle against imperialism and for socialism.

The Polish Communists realized that revo-
lution depended not only on the development
of the class struggle in Poland but also on
the world balance of political forces. It sup-
ported the anti-fascist movement of the Ger-
man people when the Hitler dictatorship was
installed in Germany; it initiated a broad
campaign in defence of Georgi Dimitrov, hero
of the Leipzig trial, and Ernst Thaelmann,
leader of the German proletariat. In the spring
of 1934, when the nationalist elements in
Poland and Czechoslovakia fomented strife
between the two fraternal peoples, the Com-
munist parties of these countries issued a
joint statement proclaiming their fidelity to
proletarian solidarity and calling the working
people to joint struggle.

The Polish Communists quickly reacted to
every important event in the international
movement. They particularly sympathized
with the valiant struggle waged by the Chi-
nese people in the ’twenties and ’thirties.

After the fascist coup in Germany the Pil-
sudski government resorted more and more
to fascist methods of rule. The Sanacja clique
connived with Hitler’s aggressive policy
which, sooner or later, was bound to boomer-
ang against Poland.

In these circumstances the Communist slo-
gans of a united working-class front and a
broad anti-fascist popular front found fertile
soil among the masses. ;

New methods of struggle for winning the
masses necessitated overcoming the sectarian
tendencies which impeded the Party’s taking

56

the correct path. Big help in this was rendered
by the Seventh Congress of the International
(1935), which called for the united efforts
of all anti-fascist forces in defense of demo-
cratic liberties, national independence and
world peace.

The Party leadership, which then included
J. Lenski, E. Prochniak, B. Bronkowski and
I. Ryng, worked hard to broaden the anti-
fascist bloc. In response to a Communist
appeal the Left members of the PSP, includ-
ing N. Barlicki, W. Wasilewska and J. Cyran-
kiewicz, radical groups of the peasant move-
ment and progressive intellectuals joined the
united popular front. Powerful anti-fascist
manifestations in town and countryside added
to the strength of this front and enhanced
its militancy.

And when the fate of Poland was at stake,
the Communists once again acted as genuine
patriots and internationalists. The Fourth
Meeting of the Central Committee (March.
1936) pointed to the direct threat to the ir
dependence of Poland on the part of Hitler
Germany and outlined the tasks: “. . . com-
bating the military machinations of Beck and
Hitler, our Party is upholding peace and na-
tional independence, because the adventur-
ist policy of the Sanacja clique dooms Poland
to vassal dependence on Hitler Germany; we
Communists will not allow our country to be
turned into a springboard or a corridor for
the Hitler generals who want to enslave both
the Polish and Soviet peoples. .. .”

In 1938, when the Sanacja government, con-
tinuing the pro-Hitler policy, planned a march
to Kovno and took part in the shameful dis-
memberment of. Czechoslovakia, the Party
vigorously denounced these actions.

Guided by a deep understanding of the
interests of the people and a sense of their
international duty, thousands of Polish Com-
munists made their way to Spain where they
fought in the ranks of the Republican Army.
The names of the Polish Communists —
Swierczewski-Walter, Strzelczyk, Jaszuniski
and many others — are inscribed in the
glorious epic of the liberation struggle of the
Spanish people.

In the summer of 1938 the Party was dis-
solved by a decision of the Executive Com-
mittee of the Communist International on the
charge that the leadership had been exten-
sively infiltrated by enemy agents. The state-
ment issued by five Communist parties on
February 19, 1956 emphasized that this charge
had been based on evidence falsified by provo-
cateurs who had since been exposed, and that
there had been no grounds whatever for dis-

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

solving the Party. The statement read in
part:

“In the hard conditions of fascist terror,
the Communist Party of Poland led the strug-
gle of the workers and peasants against capi-
talist and landlord oppression, for the social
and national liberation of the working people.
It took over and carried forward the glorious
traditions of joint revolutionary struggle of
the Polish and Russian proletariat, consistent-
ly adhered to the principles of proletarian in-
ternationalism and close co-operation with the
fraternal Communist and Workers’ parties,
with the international revolutionary move-
ment.”

The United Workers’ Party Carries Forward
the Traditions of the Communist Party

In 1941, activists of the former CPP found-
ed the Polish Workers’ Party, which took
over the noble traditions of the Communist
Party and creatively developed its ideological
principles in the new situation. During the
Second World War the Workers’ Party be-
came not only the vanguard of the working
class but also the leading force of the entire
nation in the battle for people’s Poland. Pro-
cecding from the same principles of patriot-
ism and internationalism which formed the
foundation of the activities of the Communist
Party, the PWP showed the working people
the only correct way to liberation, the way of
armed struggle jointly with the Soviet Union.

History has confirmed the soundness of this
policy. The Soviet Army smashed the Hitler
war machine. Soviet and Polish soldiers fight-
ing side by side liberated our country from
the Nazi invader who had slaughtered five
million people, ravaged the economy and de-
stroyed Warsaw. The victory of the Soviet
Union ensured our people independence and
made it possible to unite all the Polish terri-
tories into a single state.

Thus, twice in its history—in 1918 and 1944
— the Polish people gained independence
thanks to the anti-imperialist struggle of the
country that was born of the October Socialist
Revolution.

The Soviet Union’s victory over fascism
brought us national and social liberation. The
people, led by the working class, took power
into their own hands.

The Treaty of Friendship, Mutual Aid and
Co-operation (1945) was a turning point in
Polish-Soviet relations, now based on a com-
mon ideology — Marxism-Leninism, identity
of interests of our peoples, and their desire
for peace and progress. The Workers’ Party,
jointly with the regenerated Socialist Party,

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW Si

constantly explained to the people the signifi-
cance of Polish-Soviet friendship for streng-
thening and developing the young Polish state.

People’s Poland, realizing the aims advanced
in its day by the Communist Party, carried
out agrarian reform, nationalized industry
and, with Soviet aid, laid the foundation for
a planned socialist economy.

The noble cause of socialism is now in
the hands of the United Workers’ Party,
formed in December 1948 by the amalgama-
tion of the Workers’ Party and the Socialist
Party. In the past fourteen years, despite all
the shortcomings in fulfilling the 1949-55 plan,
our country has made considerable progress
in building a new life. In close co-operation
with the Soviet Union and the other socialist
countries, people’s Poland has become an
advanced industrial-agrarian country; her in-
dustrial output is now five times the 1938
level, while her agricultural output per head
of population surpasses the pre-war level by
40 per cent.

The United Workers’ Party is now prepar-
ing for its Third Congress, which will chart
the further advance of the socialist economy.
The draft directives for the 1959-65 plan,
approved by the Central Committee meeting,
envisage another big leap in socialist construc-
tion—an 80 per cent increase in industrial
output as compared with 1958. The draft
directives also provide for continued progress
in agriculture and the raising of living and
cultural standards. Fulfilment of these tasks
is unthinkable without still closer co-opera-
tion with the entire socialist camp, in which
the Soviet Union plays the leading role.

The revisionists tried to divert our Party
from the internationalist path. They attacked
the fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism. To
the general laws governing the transition from
capitalism to socialism they counterpose the
specific features of Poland’s development, al-
though the latter are but the concrete mani-
festation of these laws. Seeking to make
capital out of the past mistakes, the revision-
ists fomented nationalist mistrust of the So-
viet Union and the entire socialist camp, tried
to weaken the ties linking people’s Poland
with the other socialist countries and the
fraternal Communist and Workers’ parties.

The United Workers’ Party and its Central
Committee headed by W. Gomulka strongly
combated the revisionist tendencies, which are
cne of the varieties of nationalism, and upheld
proletarian internationalism against all at-
tempts to undermine it.

The decisions of the Twentieth Congress
of the CPSU, and the principles of solidarity

and co-operation between socialist coun-
tries developed on the basis of these deci-
sions, have reinforced the fraternal relations
between Poland and the Soviet Union. The
idea of alliance and friendship with the Soviet
Union—the cornerstone of our policy—freed
from the mistakes of the past, has acquired
new strength, and is making its way to the
hearts of the people.

The recent visit of our Party and Govern-
ment leaders to the Soviet Union and the
cordial welcome accorded them everywhere
they went provided a further expression of
the great strength of internationalism.

The Moscow talks revealed the identity of
views of the two friendly countries on all
points. The Polish-Soviet Declaration states
that any weakening of the ties between the
Polish and Soviet peoples and of the unity
of all the socialist nations could only injure
the cause of socialism and peace; and would
be advantageous to the revenge-seeking chau-
vinist elements in West Germany. The Dec-
claration added that Polish-Soviet friend-
ship, based on the principles of proletarian
internationalism, is stronger than ever before.

The imperialist attempts to sow discord be-
tween Poland and the Soviet Union, to sep-
arate Poland from the socialist camp, have
failed ignominiously. The conviction is grow-
ing among our people that the stronger the
Polish-Soviet alliance, the stronger people’s
Poland will be.

“Consolidating the unity of the socialist
camp and the fraternal friendship with the
Soviet people is the main principle of the
policy of people’s Poland, which is building
socialism,” said W. Gomulka in a speech at
Minsk on November 2, 1958. “The emergence
of people’s Poland, her progress and her
achievements are closely linked with the so-
cialist camp and first and foremost with the
fraternal aid of the advanced socialist country
—the Soviet Union. Poland’s membership in
the socialist camp and her friendship and al-
liance with the Soviet Union ensure her strong
positions in the world, protect her security
and safeguard her integrity. There is no force
on earth that can separate Poland from the
socialist camp or the Soviet Union or that
can weaken our fraternal alliance. We are
united by the common, vital interests of our
peoples and of all mankind, we are united
by the common historic goal of socialism, by
the common ideology of Marxism-Leninism,
which guides us in the building of socialism
and communism.”

The most ardent champion of this friend-
ship and alliance is the United Workers’ Party

58

—the leader of the people in the fight for
peace and socialism. Close bonds of friendship
link the United Workers’ Party with the Com-
munist Party of the Soviet Union, whose
rich experience is invaluable in the day-to-day
practical work of all the Communist and
Workers’ parties.

The Party unswervingly applies the prin-
ciples of the Moscow Declaration of the Com-
munist and Workers’ parties, which state that
Marxist-Leninist internationalist policy, edu-
cation of the working people in the spirit of
combining internationalism with patriotism
and resolute struggle to eliminate survivals
of bourgeois nationalism and chauvinism, are
essential for consolidating fraternal relations
and friendship between the socialist countries.

The chief motto of the United Workers’
Party, as stated in the draft Rules to be sub-
mitted for discussion to the Third Party Con-
gress, is loyalty to the principles of inter-
nationalism and struggle against all manifes-
tations of nationalism.

Time has confirmed the principled correct-
ness of the path charted by the Polish Com-

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

munist Party. The latest achievements of
people’s Poland, won under the leadership of
the United Workers Party, are linked with
the selfless struggle of the Communist Party
which steeled the people for the decisive bat-
tles for independence, power and socialism.

At the Twelfth Meeting of the Central
Committee of the Party W. Gomulka solemnly
declared:

“The idea, which forty years ago formed the
basis of the Communist Party of Poland, is
today the guiding star in the work of our
Party. It is the immortal idea of Marxism-
Leninism, the idea of struggle for socialism.
And if today we are building socialism in our
country, this is due in no small measure to
our predecessor—the Polish Communist Party.
It was this party that educated and steeled
the indefatigable fighters for socialism: cadres
who later, in the new setting, although great-
ly depleted in numbers as a result of exter-
mination-measures and the war against Hitler-
ism, became the buttress of people’s Poland,
the backbone of our Party.”

The Labor Party Today:
Its Policy and Ideology

J.,.R. Campbell

N THE LAST three years at least the British

Labor Party has been overhauling its
policy in preparation for the General Election,
which will evidently be held some time in
1959. The policy adopted, on the whole, aban-
dons all pretense that the Labor Party aims
at achieving a socialist order of society. The
aim of all the statements of policy which the
party has adopted is to attract increasing
numbers of the petty bourgeoisie and the
more backward sections of the workers. It is
assumed that the main body of the working
class will vote Labor as a matter of loyalty.
It is the wavering sections, who fluctuate
between the Labor and the Conservative par-
ties, whom the new policy is expected to win
as Labor voters.

Before describing the policy documents, it
is necessary to outline the rather peculiar
organization of the British Labor Party. At
present it claims to have over 6,796,000 pay-
ing members, of whom 1,000,000 are members
who joined as individuals, in the same way

as the members of any Social-Democratic
party. In these individual sections women
constitute almost half the membership. Then
there are the trade unions, which are affili-
ated to the Labor Party on a national scale
and form an absolute majority.

Socialist organizations (the Fabian Society,
the Socialist Lawyers’ Society, the National
Association of Labor Teachers, etc.) and
Co-operative Societies with about 40,000
members are also affiliated. The majority of
the Co-operative Societies in Britain are
affiliated to the Co-operative Party, which
has an electoral agreement with the Labor
Party but is not affiliated to it.

There are three basic units of the Labor
Party: 1) the constituency Labor Party con-
sisting of representatives from the individual
members’ sections, from the local branches
of the trade unions, the Socialist Societies,
and women’s and youth organizations in a
parliamentary constituency. 2) The city Labor
Party—in large cities, where there are 2

_—_—— Soe oe Oe

ao

———————

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 59

number of constituencies. 3) The regional
Labor Party—in counties or regions, co-ordi-
nating the activities of the county and city
bodies. All these units are affiliated members
of the party. Delegates representing the con-
stituency Labor Party have voting cards each
commanding the votes of 5,000 individual
members, while the delegates from the city
and regional organizations have single cards
irrespective of membership.

These local organizations are represented
on the Executive Committee of the Labor
Party by seven members, elected at the Na-
tional Conference by the delegates of these
organizations only. These are people who in
the recent past have claimed to be Lefts. The
ex-chairman of the party, Mr. Driberg, and
the present chairman, Mrs. Castle, are mem-
bers of this section-of the Executive.

The trade unions are represented at the
conference by delegations, elected according
to the rules of the various unions. Each trade
union delegation has a vote equal to the
number of members for whom it pays affilia-
tion fees to the Labor Party. The unions are
entitled to elect twelve members to the Labor
Party Executive.* Generally speaking, the
union representatives on the Executive Com-
mittee are, with few exceptions, to the Right
of those elected to represent the local Labor
Parties and few of them are political person-
alities in their own right.

There is one Executive member elected
from the Socialist (e.g. Fabian Society) and
Co-operative section, and five women mem-
bers. The party treasurer can be nominated
by any organization and, like the women’s
representatives, is elected by all the delegates
to the conference. The leader and deputy
leader of the Labor Party in Parliament sit
on the party Executive, without being elected.

On the surface the Labor Party structure
is one of broad democracy and independent
action. Experience has proved, however, that
this ramified party mechanism channels the
activity of its rank-and-file into the current
and local tasks and electioneering, while policy
problems are elaborated and implemented by
the National Executive, actually the main
body of the party, which, through its tough
policy in selecting the personnel and no less
tough regulations in discussing national issues,
ensures majority support.

*A custom has grown up in the British trade unions in
which the outstanding leader in any given union — the
General Secretary — usually tries to get elected to the
General Council of the Trades Union Congress, and the

second most prominent leader to .the Executive Committee
of the Labor Party.

In the past it has generally been the local
Labor units which have fought for progressive
policies inside the Party. It was here that the
most Socialist-minded members of the party
were to be found. Since the Second World
War these sections have been increasingly
infiltrated by middle class intellectuals, posing
as Lefts. At the same time in recent years
there has been a leftward swing in some of
the trade unions, and progressive policies now
often come from this direction.

The Communist Party has sought, in all
ways, to encourage these policies both in the
trade unions and the local Labor Parties.

The Right wing has done everything pos-
sible to prevent the association of rank-and-
file members of the Labor Party with rank-
and-file Communists. Every Labor Party
conference report contains a list of what the
Executive calls ‘proscribed organizations.”
Any member of the Labor Party: associating
with such organizations can be expelled. In
addition to the Communist Party these organ-
izations include the British-Soviet Friendship
Society, the Britain-China Friendship Associ-
ation, Scientists for Peace organization, the
British Peace Committee and the World Fed-
eration of Democratic Youth. Nevertheless,
in the trade unions, on shop stewards’ com-
mittees and in tenants’ organizations Labor
Party and Communist Party members associ-
ate, and the Communists are able to influence
their Labor colleagues in a number of ways.

Since 1951 a struggle has been proceeding
in the Labor Party between those who want
the party to adopt what they consider to be
a more advanced socialist program, and those
who want it to drop even socialist phrases
from its program.

From 1951 to 1957 there gathered around
Mr. Aneurin Bevan a group of Lefts who
criticized the Labor leadership for timidity
and who demanded a clear-cut statement of
socialist policy. In 1952 various personalities
associated with this group were elected to
represent the constituency organizations on
the National Executive. At first the main
question on which they assailed the Right
wing was that of West German rearmament.
Supported by all the Lefts in the Labor Party
and reinforced strongly by the trade unions,
in which the Communists had conducted a
powerful campaign against West German
rearmament, they almost succeeded in over-
throwing the Right-wing policy of arms for
Adenauer, which was only carried by 3,270,000
against 3,022,000, a vote which gave a con-

60

siderable stimulus to the Left wing in the
party.

~ When at the 1955 conference the Executive
announced that it was going to appoint a
series of committees to consider all aspects
of party policy, this was regarded as being
the great opportunity for the Left.

The policy statements dealing with such
questions as “Towards Equality,” ‘Personal
Freedom,” “Aid for the Colonies and Under-
developed Countries,” “Industry and Society,”
“National Superannuation” (a new pensions
policy), “Speed the Plow” (the agricultural
policy) and “Plan for Progress” have now
appeared. Those documents in the main repre-
sent a victory for the Right-wing and a com-
plete capitulation of the former Left leaders.
So, far from the Labor leaders being forced
to adhere to the traditional aims of the Party
as set down in its 1918 reformist program
(“the common ownership of the means of
production,” etc.), they have succeeded in
those policy documents in revising that pro-
gram which, though always ignored by the
Labor leadership in practice, nevertheless
outlined the goal of the movement as being
socialism. But since the policy documents
are the result of a struggle ending in com-
promise, they are not always of a consistently
Right-wing character. Left and Right phrases
are to be found on the same page of some of
the documents. But the Right wing has made
the actual policy on the basis of which any
Labor Government will operate.

* ok *

The essence of the policy documents is that
the concept of socialism as a system of society
based upon “common ownership of the means
of production” and therefore quite distinct
from the capitalist system, is repudiated. In
its place a new concept of “socialism” ap-
pears, according to which socialism is a set
of moral principles about equality, personal
freedom, co-operation and mutual aid in oppo-
sition to competition, which the Labor Party
proposes to apply in the shape of social
reforms within the existing capitalist system
of society. Anyone who approves of such
moral principles and who supports the various
reforms which the Labor Party proposes, is
to be regarded as a Socialist. The basic state-
ment of this position will be found in two
documents: “Industry and Society” adopted
by the Labor Party’s 56th conference and
“Plan for Progress” adopted in 1958.

Like similar Right-wing Social Democratic
documents, notably those of West Germany
and Austria, a great deal is written about

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

the changed nature of present-day capitalism
as compared with capitalism between th
two world wars.

In assessing these changes the Labor Party
claims that the monopoly capitalism which
existed in Britain between the wars was a
laissez faire economy, with the functioning
of which the capitalist state did not interfere.
This is false. The policy documents deliberate-
ly understate the close relations between the
capitalist state and the monopolies before the
war in order to present the changes which
have taken place in British capitalism since
the war as something fundamentally new.

Indeed, after the Second World War the
state-monopoly tendencies in the British econ-
omy have drastically intensified. This can be
explained by the growing political activity
of the working class, the worsened economic
relations with other countries and the balance
of payments crisis, the sharp postwar disparity
in the levels of the processing industries and
the fuel base. But the first explanation is
British capitalism’s seriously weakened posi-
tions as a result of the disintegration of the
colonial system. In order to make British
goods more competitive and maintain highest
profits, in order to save capitalism, the mono-
polists use the state to accelerate concentra-
tion of production, rationalization of some
industries and other measures.

As a result British capitalism, which had
for long lagged behind German and American
in the level of concentration and state-mono-
poly “organization” of production, has over-
come this lag and, in some respects, even
outstripped these countries. The document
“Industry and Society” points out that while
there are 11,000 companies, one-half of the
profits appropriated by them are reaped by
512 of the largest companies and that these
tend to grow faster. The document sees in
this natural process of the concentration of
capital certain specific features, allegedly
facilitating the control exercised by the state,
“an institution above the classes,” over indus-
try—and not only because the leading mono-
polies decrease in number but, primarily,
because, they say, the above process is accom-
panied by a “managerial revolution.” The
large firms today, it says, are less and less
controlled by powerful financial groups of
large shareholders, and more and more con-
trolled in policy-making by Boards of Directors
whose members do not hold many of the
shares of the companies. The strongly organ-
ized groups of large shareholders, who are in-
tent on obtaining the maximum profit, are
being replaced, according to the Laborites, by

a a a a or ee

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WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 61

managerial elites who are not concerned with
maximum profits but with capital investment
and expansion of production. “Salaries, pen-
sions, status, power and promotion—these
rather than wealth are their operating incen-
tives.” What an amazing discovery! This, in
any case, is meant for those who have never
heard of capitalist accumulation which em-
braces the growing capital investments, pro-
fits, salaries, pensions, etc.

In support of these conclusions the Labor
Party quotes data from a book by the well-
known British economist, Professor Sargent
Florence. Yet in this book Professor Florence
states the opposite of what the Labor Party
is trying to prove. He says: “There is certainly
evidence for believing that the managerial
revolution has not proceeded as far as is
sometimes thought (or. stated without
thought) and that leadership and the ultimate
decision on top policy may remain in many
companies or corporations with the largest
capitalist shareholders.”

Of course, as we know, the big shareholders
need control only a minority of the shares
in order to have effective control of a com-
pany. This, which Professor Florence calls
“oligarchic minority owners’ control,” makes
nonsense of the theory of the managerial
revolution.

At the very moment that the Labor Party
was declaring that the financial oligarchy
no longer controlled British industry, struggles
were taking place in companies in relation
to what are called ‘take-over bids.” In a
“take-over bid” a financial group, outside a
given company, seeks to buy shares from the
smaller shareholders, in order to wrest control
from the group at present controlling the
company. If they succeed of course they
would be able to change the ‘managerial
elite” also. Nothing could more clearly demon-
strate the fact that control rests with an
organized group of the biggest shareholders
and that the managerial revolution is a myth.

This myth, however, is to serve another
Labor “statement of policy.” “The Labor Party
recognizes,” says “Industry and Society,”
“that, under increasing professional manage-
ments, large firms are as a whole serving the
nation well. Moreover, we recognize that no
organization, public or private, can operate
effectively if it is subjected to persistent and
detailed intervention from above. We have,
therefore, no intention of intervening in the
management of any firm which is doing a
good job.” So the Labor leadership has openly
abandoned the idea of gradual nationalization
of the whole economy as the rank and file and

the whole working class expected it to do in
1945. Instead the Labor Party proposes that
heirs to capitalist fortunes when paying inheri-
tance tax (the so-called “death duties”) should
do so not in money but in shares in capitalist
concerns. “By these means,” the document
goes on, “the community will acquire a stake
in the expaision of industry. Such acquisitions
of shares will of course be made at full market
values. They will be guided solely by invest-
ment considerations and will not be aimed
at securing control” (of capitalist enterprises) .
This is said to be quite enough for sustaining
a “mixed economy.”* And should there be
close co-operation between a Labor Govern-
ment and the large firms, we are told, state
control of the economy, up to preventing the
slump from occurring, will be ensured.

Many supporters of capitalism claim that
the good and bad features of capitalism are
closely related, and no matter what reforms
are carried out, it is impossible to eliminate
the bad features without simultaneously
eliminating those which they hold to be good.
But the Labor Party claims that all this is
in its power. This is the essence of its policy
document, “Plan for Progress.”

This document proceeds from the assump-
tion that the cycle of crisis, depression, revival
and boom has become obsolete in capitalist
society and that in present British capitalist
society it is possible, by means of certain
state controls, to have sustained expansion
of production, rising real wages, stable prices,
full employment, planning to achieve a higher
rate of investment, and a strong balance of
payments.

In short, Right-wing Labor is saying that
it is possible to have an eternal boom without
any of the evils associated with such booms
in capitalist history. This document therefore
buries for ever the idea of a socialist transfor-
mation. For where is the need for socialism
if such aims can be achieved within the frame-
work of capitalism?

The first question which naturally arises
when reading “Plan for Progress” is, why
didn’t the Labor Party free Britain from the
evils of capitalism when there was a Labor
Government between 1945 and 1951? For the
“requisites” now quoted to substantiate the
possibility of effective control over capitalist
economy were also available at that time.
Everyone remembers that there was full em-
ployment and investment expansion, but there
was also, despite controls, steadily rising

*Reference is to partial nationalization of the economy
with the leading industries under the control of private
capital.

62

prices. And everyone knows that the Labor
Government-was swept aside by a wave of
inflation. This document gives a detailed and
rather exact picture of the present state of
Britain’s economy, but its falsity is that it
ascribes the unstable and deteriorating posi-
tion of the economy exclusively to the policy
of the Tories, who (in contrast to the Labor
leaders, evidently) are incapable of exercising
“effective control.”

“Plan for Progress” was the main document
at the last Labor Party conference. It was
introduced by Harold Wilson, who is expected
to be the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the
next Labor Government. His speech was suc-
cessful as an attack on the Tory party, but
it completely omitted to explain how the plan
could stop the development of the recession
or how it could maintain full employment.

There were two aspects of the plan which
might be expected to arouse a great deal of
discussion. The plan called for an increased
proportion of Britain’s national income to be
devoted to the expansion of the country’s
basic equipment. This could only mean that
consumption was to be prevented from in-
creasing meantime, so that more resources
could be devoted to the expansion of the
productive apparatus. The question naturally
arises, whose consumption is to be kept from
rising or even reduced? Is the consumption of
the mass of the people to be prevented from
increasing in order to free resources for the
expansion of the great privately-owned mon-
opolistic industries?

The Executive members kept silent on this
point, but two Labor M.P.s, Roy Jenkins and
Desmond Donnelly. explained what, in their
opinion, it meant. Jenkins said that it should
be made clear to the people that Labor was
postponing the development of some social
services now in order to find means of ex-
nanding the productive capacity of British
industry. Donnelly put it in a more popular
way: “If a choice has to be made between
(building) a machine-tool factory and a hos-
pital he would choose the factory because it
would mean a better hospital in the end.” It
is noticeable that though the Executive
spokesmen did not endorse those remarks,
they did not contradict them, as they would
have done if they were incorrect. Thus the
Labor Party stipulates that some of the ex-
pansion of British capitalist industry, if the
Labor program is operated, will be at the
expense of the consumption of goods and of
the standard of life of the mass of the people.

The second peculiar feature of “Plan for
Progress” is that it calls for wage restraint.

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

Practically any and every policy can be justi-
fied by the contradictory character of its
statements. On the one hand the Plan says
that (1) the growth of money incomes of the
workers and employees must keep broadly in
step with higher productivity. But (2) that is
not to say that increases in productivity must
necessarily precede higher wages and salaries.
On the contrary, the pressure for wage in-
creases may be instrumental in improving
production and modernization of technology
by the managements, thus bringing about
greater productivity. At last, the document
states that (3) wages should be related to
preductivity but not in any particular indus-
try, that this principle should be applied with
due account of the state of the economy as
a whole.

It is only too obvious that the second
proposition, for example, which all trade
unionists will approve, would work against
the third and first propositions, for workers
in an industry whose productivity grows at
a faster rate cannot hope for a proportionally
equal wage increase, since in another industry
productivity develops more slowly or is even
marking time. The benefits of increased pro-
ductivity would not be shared by “the com-
munity as a whole,” as the Laborites would
like to present it—the employers would only
pocket the difference between the fast-grow-
ing profit (a result of increased productivity)
and the slower growing wage.

Speaking at the Scarborough conference
Hugh Gaitskell actually confirmed that such
would be the consequences of the Plan when
implemented by a Labor Government. Gait-
skell declared that the party Executive was
against a wage freeze (that is, a decision
on the part of the Government to prevent
wages from rising at all), but it was also
against a wage squeeze (that is, a powerful
drive by the trade unions to extract from the
employers the maximum possible wage in-
creases). Clearly what the unions are expected
to do, under a Labor Government, is to cut
down their demands for increased wages to
very modest dimensions. That is obviously
a policy of what is called wage restraint. Yet
Frank Cousins of the Transport and General
Workers’ Union supported the ‘Plan for Pro-
gress” because, in his opinion, it did not
involve wage restraint. The plain fact is that
may delegates who supported the Plan because
it was necessary to preserve the appearance
of party unity, did not grasp the wider impli-
cations of this document. We must also bear
in mind that “Plan for Progress” was issued
after the majority of union conferences were

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WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 63

held, so there were no union conferences’
instructions to delegates reflecting the attitude
of the party rank and file towards this docu-
ment. So the Plan was accepted practically
unanimously.

With the acceptance of this document the
Labor Party’s discussion on policy has been
completed. The results have been summarized
by the Right-wing Labor writer, C. A. R. Cros-
land, as follows: “Broadly one may say that
the ‘revisionist’ period is over: that is, the
business of giving the Labor Party a policy
attuned to mid-twentieth century conditions
is more or less complete. On the theoretical
plane, this period began with the new Fabian
essays and continued with the analytical
works by Strachey, the Socialist Union group
and by myself. On the practical plane, it cul-
minated in the recent series of Labor Party
statements, all bearing the mark of Gaitskell’s
personal influence. British socialism now lays
much less emphasis on old-style nationaliza-
tion and detailed physical controls, and much
more on economic expansion, social welfare
and social equality; while its pristine semi-
Marxist analysis of capitalist society has given
way to a more subtle revisionist theory of
post-capitalist society.”

It should be noted that Crosland uses the
term “revisionist” not only in relation to
Marxism, but also in relation to the old re-
formist program of the Labor Party. In spite
of the smooth, deceptive reformist phrases
his attitude is quite clear — “a policy attuned
to mid-twentieth century conditions” really
means a policy adapted to British monopoly
capitalism, which is described as a ‘“‘post-
capitalist society.” Capitalism has evidently
vanished in Britain, according to him, without
affecting the capitalists or their control over
the major industries, and indeed without af-
fecting the capitalist offensive now in full
swing against the workers.

In addition to the “Plan for Progress’ the
Labor Party conference discussed other issues
such as educational policy, which was opposed
by some of the big unions and local branches.
The Executive, however, managed to turn
down the demand that the privileged schools
be abolished. These schools (Eton, Winches-
ter, Harrow, etc.) are accessible only to the
children of the rich and ensure privileges for
their pupils (easy access to the university
and top Army, Navy, Civil Service jobs later
in life).

The Executive resolution on foreign policy
presented to the conference embodied many
of the relatively progressive attitudes adopted
by the party in 1957 and was therefore an

advance. But alongside those progressive
demands, there was also support for NATO.
So the resolution clearly faced two different
ways. On the one hand, it faced in the direc-
tion of a new policy reflecting the real inter-
ests of the labor movement and the country,
but on the other, it looked backward to NATO
and the cold war. But in the debate cold war
expressions of opinion were played down.
Even Healey, M.P. for East Leeds, who usually
took an anti-Soviet line in the past, did not
do so on this occasion. A member of the Par-
liamentary leadership of the party, George
Brown, who came out strongly in favor of
tactical nuclear weapons, aroused the hostility
of the conference. One could say that the
conference was behind what was new and
progressive in the Labor movement. The de-
bate therefore centered round a resolution
moved bv the Fire Brigades’ Union, calling
for Britain to end the manufacture of nuclear
weapons of all kinds. The conference, how-
ever, defeated this resolution by 5,611,000
votes to 890,000. The resolution of the Execu-
tive which pledges a Labor Government ‘to
stop H-bomb tests was then carried. But
Gaitskell’s concluding speech in this debate
fully illustrated the evasive attitude of the
Executive. He said that if the Labor Party
could be assured that other states now propos-
ing to manufacture nuclear weapons would
cease to do so, provided Britain abandoned
the bomb, then he was willing to consider
that proposal. This would leave only the Unit-
ed States and the Soviet Union in possession
of nuclear weapons. Yet only a few minutes
before, in the same speech, Gaitskell declared
that for Britain to abandon the manufacture
of nuclear weapons was to shelter behind
the American bombs, an attitude which he
clearly regarded as undesirable.

The two faces of the resolution adopted
at Scarborough reflected the struggle waged
in the Labor Party over the past few years
on international issues. It is a matter of com-
mon knowledge that the previous conference
in 1957 marked a break with the cold war
policy and an advance in the direction of a
policy of peaceful coexistence (on such points
as an end to H-bomb tests, destruction of
stocks of nuclear weapons. disarmament,
reunification of Germany within the frame-
work of a European Security System, admis-
sion of the Chinese Peovle’s Republic to the
United Nations, etc.).

In 1958, however, the debate assumed a
new intensity. It was stimulated by two
events. The first was the announcement by
the American General T. S. Power that relays

64

of American bombers, armed with H-bombs,
were flying over Britain, and the second was
the interview by the Prime Minister, Macmil-
lan, who showed by his replies to questions
that he did not really know what was happen-
ing in the American air force. The possibility
of a nuclear war being started by mistake
was in everybody’s mind. The public alarm
. increased when the Prime Minister went to
Washington and made an arrangement that
American rockets should be installed in
Britain. A number of scientists and other
intellectuals, headed by Earl Russell, started
an organization called the Campaign for Nu-
clear Disarmament, which attracted unprece-
dentedly large audiences. At the same time
the Communist Party successfully launched a
campaign against the installation of American
rocket bases in Britain. The result was that
members of the Labor Party began to demand
that the Executive should organize a cam-
paign.

After a considerable delay, the Executive
issued two statements. They said that pending
international agreement the British Govern-
ment should suspend H-tests, refrain from
allowing American bases to be installed on
British soil, stop the flights of American
bombers over Britain, and seek a non-aggres-
sion pact between East and West; the British
Government should take the initiative in de-
manding summit talks, support the withdrawal
of all foreign forces from East and West
Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hun-
gary, support German reunification on the
basis of free elections and that West Germany
should withdraw from the NATO pact, pro-
vided the other countries mentioned withdraw
from the Warsaw Pact.

It will be noted that there are positive and
negative aspects in these statements of policy.
On nuclear disarmament the Labor Party Ex-
ecutive went further than it had previously.
On other questions, however, many of the
traits of the previous cold war policy remain
(for instance, the proposition that a European
security pact should be dependent on the
prior unification of Germany by so-called free
elections, the German Democratic Republic
being completely ignored).

The greatest weakness in the Labor foreign
policy program is with regard to the Middle
East, which is one of the focal points of the
war danger. While the Labor Party opposed
the Anglo-French aggression in Egypt in 1956,
it has never had a consistently friendly policy
towards the Arab states.

When the imperialist troops were landed
in Lebanon and Jordan, the leadership of the

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

Labor Party showed its usual hesitations.
While it strongly criticized the American
landing in Lebanon it did not in Parliament
vote against the British Government, which
had supported the American landing. Only
when the British Government sent troops to
Jordan did it initiate a parliamentary debate
and vote against the Government. It also
demanded a summit conference on the Middle
East.

Taking into account the experience of the
past few years it can be inferred that the
policy of the Labor leadership, hence of a
future Labor Government, will be largely
determined by the weight of the pressure
exerted by the working people.

% % %

With a General Election approaching the
question arises as to what attitude should
be adopted to the Labor Party in view of its
recent decisions. From the very moment the
aforesaid documents of policy appeared the
Communist Party has been tirelessly explain-
ing to the working class their non-socialist
character and bourgeois essence. Now they
have been approved and will be recommended
to a future Labor Government. Does this
change the attitude of the Communist Party
towards the Tory-Labor rivalry at the forth-
coming elections? No, it does not. As on
previous occasions the Communists will do
all they can to bring nearer the election day
and defeat the Tories. At the same time the
Communist Party will continue to explain
to the people that at present a victory for
the Labor Party does not signify that a Social-
ist government will be created capable of
resolving the vital social problems facing the
country. Now that they have their “Plan for
Progress” and other documents, a Labor Gov-
ernment will be even less capable of doing
this than in 1945 when it linked socialism
with nationalization (although in a reformist
interpretation) .

Since the schemes to build a Welfare State,
in which the monopoly ownership of the
means of production will be preserved, are
doomed to failure, the Communists are bound
to see to it that the disillusionment of the
British working class and the entire people
in these projects should not lead to further
disillusionment in the possibility, in the near
future, of realizing the socialist ideals in our
country, i.e., that imperialist reaction should
not add another victory to its list. Therefore
the Communists will conduct a fight to elimi-
nate the reactionary features of the Labor
Party program and, in the long run, radically

trated

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 65

change it, making it a genuinely socialist
program.

The opinion is still current in Britain that
the most effective way of giving the Labor
Party a revolutionary reorientation would be
for the Communists to leave their Party and
join the Labor Party with the aim of conduct-
ing educational and explanatory work there.
The Communists hold that the opposite is
true. Because the stronger and the more united
the Communist Party, the wider its influence
in industry and in the trade unions, and the
greater its political activity based on its Marx-
ist-Leninist program, the greater will be the
impact of socialist ideas on the masses and
the greater the possibilities of success for the
militants in the local Labor branches, in the
trade union and co-operative movements, and
the more active and numerous will be the Left
wing in the Labor Party and the more real
the perspective for defeating its present Right-
wing leadership. It is only the Communist
Party, equipped with Marxist theory, the
experience of the class struggle and profound
knowledge of the national peculiarities of
Britain and the traditions of her people, that
can ensure this.

The electoral field affords the greatest op-
portunity to exvlain the policy and role of
the Communist Party in the labor movement.
The Communists maintain that the interests of
the country and the working class require that
Communist M.P.s be returned to Parliament.
The time has come for every branch of the
Party to work among the people so that it
can contest the local elections with Com-
munist candidates.

The Party holds that preparations for the
General Election should commence now, par-
ticularly by the creation of a broad anti-Gov-
ernment front in the large factories. The at-
tempts of the Labor bureaucracy to keep the
Communist and Labor Party workers from
co-operating with each other, must be frus-
in the factories. It is here that 2
united working-class opinion on what to do

in the immediate struggle is of decisive im-
portance.

The problem of united action by the rank-
and-file Laborites and Communists is closely
connected with the prospects facing the Left
in the Labor Party. Its present weakness is
due to the fact that it allowed itself to be
influenced by the anti-Communist drive at the
height of the cold war. “Especially in the
post-war years,” writes John Gollan in a re-
cent pamphlet, ‘anti-communism has crippled
Left movements. Attacked by the Right wing,
many Left supporters and leaders seemed to
think that they could protect their position
by dissociation from or attacking the Com-
munists. As was inevitable all such attacks
simply played into the hand of the Right
wing.

“The Scarborough conference (of the Labor
Party) shows how urgent it is to regroup the
forces of the Left. For if Bevanism has col-
lapsed, the Left forces in the unions and in
the constituency parties remain, and we will
do everything in our power to support Left
developments now as in the past.”

But the Left forces must draw a conclusion
from the recent developments, which remind
us of what once happened to them in the
past of the Labor movement: as long as they
ignore the Communist Party and therefore
split the Left of the British working-class
movement they will not defeat the Labor
Rights.

The recent policy successes of the reform-
ists gravely imperil the British labor move-
ment. Now more than ever before it needs
a strong Communist Party, a mass party
capable of rallying all the progressive forces
to fight for a socialist Britain. The Commun-
ists are now reminding the people of their
slogan put forward in The British Road to
Socialism: those who cherish the cause of
socialism and regard themselves as able fight-
ers for a bright future for Britain should sup-
port the Communist Party and join its ranks.

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

Activities of Communist
and Workers’ Parties |

The Communist Party of Greece
Is Forty Years Old

N its fortieth anniversary the Communist Party

of Greece issued a number of documents
which are of importance for the people’s struggle
for national and social emancipation.

The ‘“‘Theses on the Fortieth Anniversary of the
Communist Party of Greece,” adopted by the Ninth
Central Committee Meeting, outline the Party’s
history, summarize its experience and specify the
task facing the working class and the national-
liberation movement.

This document shows that, despite many diffi-
culties, temporary failures and mistakes, the Party
numbers hundreds of thousands of members and
supporters, that it has become a mass party of
the working class heading the nationwide move-
ment for peace and democratic changes.

Of the main stages in the Party’s history priority
is given to the war and postwar periods. During
the Second World War the Communists were the
most consistent patriots; they led the national-
liberation struggle against the invader. On the
Party’s initiative a National-Liberation Front
(EAM) was organized in the autumn of 1941, which
united all the Resistance forces. The Greek Peo-
ple’s Liberation Army (ELAS) was formed and in-
flicted heavy blows on the occupation forces. In
many parts of the country the people took power
into their hands.

But at the time of the turn in the anti-fascist
war the Party leadership made a number of grave
mistakes. The internal reactionaries, supported by
the British imoverialists, now did all in their power
to sabotage the national-liberation struggle. The
Party failed to take the necessary measures to
stop this sabotage. The fundamental error of the
leadership was that it overestimated the strength
of the British imperialists and the internal reac-
tionaries and underestimated the forces of the
people. Although the Resistance movement was
crushed, the National Liberation Front did not
lose its significance. Under its banners the people
for the first time set up their own rule and began
to introduce democratic changes; this patriotic

movement was headed by the working class.

A large part of the theses deals with the struggle
waged by the Party for national independence,
peace and democracy in the postwar period when
plutocratic reaction prevailed. The latter harnessed

the country first to the chariot of British imperial-
ism and later to the American imperialists; they
turned Greece into a bridgehead against the social-
ist countries and the national-liberation movements
in the Middle East.

At this time the Party headed the struggle against
the British-American interventionists and _pluto-
cratic reaction. The leadership, however, failed to
understand the character and immediate tasks of
the revolutionary movement, calling for an im-
mediate socialist revolution at a time when the
liberation struggle could be successful only as an
anti-imperialist and democratic struggle. This sec-
tarian policy led to a certain isolation of the Party
from the masses and to the defeat of the demo-
cratic movement in 1949. The mistakes made in
the subsequent years caused a profound crisis in
the Party.

The theses point out that the Twentieth Con-
gress of the CPSU, which marked a new stage in
the international Communist and working-class
movement, helped the Party to rectify its errors.
The Sixth Enlarged Meeting of the Central Com-
mittee and Central Control Commission in 1956 led
the Party out of the crisis and defined its tasks.

“The Declaration of Policy’’ worked out by the
Central Committee explains that in Greece, a back-
ward country dependent on foreign imperialism,
providing certain conditions obtain, liberation and
democratic freedoms can be won peacefully. Need-
ed for this is a National Front that would unite all
the social forces interested in effecting changes—
the working class, which is called upon to play
the leading role; the peasantry, its natural ally; the
middle urban strata; the national intelligentsia,
patriotic officers and clergy, and the national
bourgeoisie.

In recent years the prestige and influence of the
Party among the masses have grown noticeably;
its slogans have the support of the people. The
Left democratic forces are making headway.

Despite terror and persecution, the United Demo-
cratic Left Party (EDA) won a major victory
in the general election on May 11, 1958, polling 25
per cent of the votes and winning 79 seats; it is
the leading opposition party.

The working people and some of the political
parties are insisting on legality for the Communist

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WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 67

Party. The strike movement is growing, and the
peasants are fighting with renewed vigor. There
is ferment among civil servants, intellectuals, han-
dicraftsmen and self-employed who are protesting
against the high prices and the onerous tax bur-
den. Big sections of the national bourgeoisie are
protesting against the free imports, the high taxes,
and the ruthless exploitation of the country’s re-
sources by foreign capitalists.

The overwhelming majority of the people sup-
port the demand that Greece shall not be involved
in the war gambles of the American-British im-
perialists, that her territory, ports and air-space
shall not be used for aggressive actions by the
militarists. They are demanding that Greece un-
conditionally take the side of the friendly Arab
nations now combating colonialism, nations which
are her allies in the struggle to liberate Cyprus;
that she should support the proposals made by
the peaceful countries for eliminating the war
danger, annul the agreement which aligns the
country with “the Dulles-Eisenhower Doctrine,”
and the American-Greek agreement of October 12,
1953.

A large part of the theses is devoted to inner-
Party problems; education of the members, strug-
gle on two fronts—against revisionism, the main
danger today, and against dogmatism and _ sec-
tarianism.

The Tenth Meeting of the Central Committee,
devoted to the Party’s fortieth anniversary, stress-
ed that features of the present situation in the
country were the imminent national crisis, the
further regrouping of the internal forces in favor
of the patriotic and democratic movement, and
the upsurge of the popular struggle. The Karaman-
lis Government has launched anothér offensive
against the people and the democratic forces. An
unprecedented anti-Constitutional ‘‘administrative
regime” has been introduced, designed to turn

the whole country into a concentration camp for
the extermination of the Government’s political
opponents. The administration is becoming more
and more fascist-like, the entire life of the country
is subordinated to the rule of the police.

Under the conditions of a police regime, the
Party is working to unite all the progressive forces
for the common struggle to put an end to the
repressions and arrests, to preserve what remains
of democratic rights, to stop the country from
being turned into an atomic outpost of the im-
perialists, and secure the liberation of Cyprus.

In the messages of greeting from the fraternal
parties un the occasion of the anniversary, the
Communist Party of Greece has been praised for
its work. “‘Loyal to the ideas of Marxism-Leninism
and the granite-like principles of proletarian inter-
nationalism, the Communist Party of Greece has
waged a consistent and selfless struggle for the
working-class cause, for the national liberation
and independence of Greece, for the vital interests
of her people,” said the message of greetings
from the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union.

The Central Committee of the Italian Communist
Party said in its message: “The Communists
and people of Italy understand and appreciate
the militancy of their Greek comrades. They under-
stand and appreciate the methods by which the
Greek Communists, under the difficult conditions
of illegality, are leading the masses in all fields
of struggle for national independence, a better life
and peace, always having before them the task
of achieving broad unity and broad alliances.”

The message from the Chinese Communist Party,
noting the progress of the patriotic and democratic
movements of the Greek people, inseparably linked
with the heroic struggle of the Communists, ex-
presses confidence that ‘‘ultimately the gloom will
be dispersed and replaced by light.”

Against Foreign Intervention in Cuba

We print below the text (abridged) of the
appeal to the people of Cuba released by the
National Committee of the Popular Socialist
Party in connection with the threat of North
American armed intervention.

“FTYHE crisis in Cuba is deepening. The reac-

tionary and anti-national Batista government
in unable to quell the armed insurrection and hold
back the growing popular movement for freedom
and democracy, for progress and peace. Because
of this, the North American ruling circles are
interfering more and more in our internal affairs,
resorting to naked military invasion in an attempt

to bolster up the dictatorial Batista government and
maintain the present regime. This can be seen
from the rccent pronouncements of Lincoln White,
spokesmen of the U.S. State Department, and the
despatch of an aircraft carrier from the Guan-
tanamo naval base to the Nicaro zone. There is
nothing surprising in this.

“It is no secret that the reactionary coup of
March 10 was aided and abetted by the North
American imperialists, as we demonstrated and
proved at the time.

“It is also known that the American Government
has given diplomatic and other support to the gov-
ernment brought into being by the coup. By

68

declaring the elections of November 1, 1954—the
biggest electoral swindle ever seen in Cuba—valid
and genuine, while those who opposed this law-
lessness were described as gangsters and equated
with lawbreakers in the United States, Mr. Gard-
ner, U.S. Ambassador, crudely interfered in our
internal affairs, in a manner intolerable for any
independent country.”

On the pretext of combating communism, the
Appeal goes on, the Batista government has re-
ceived from the United States armaments and
munitions of all kinds, including aircraft and
bombs for reprisals against the Cuban insurgents;
FBI agents take part in hounding Cubans and
instruct the Batista police in the arts of torture
and provocation; on the territory of the United
States, government bodies oersecute, arrest, put
on trial and jail Cuban emigrants fighting against
tyranny, and confiscate the arms collected by them
for Cuba. Agents of Yankee imperialism and the
North American consulates have hindered in every
way the formation of a united front in Cuba against
tyranny and reaction, for independence, democ-
racy, progress and peace.

The Pan American trade union agency of the
imperialists (ORIT) prevented the workers from
rallying in the struggle against the government
formed in March 1952, while its agents in Cuba—
the henchmen of Muhal, waxing rich on the sweat
and blood of the working people—acted as hereto-
fore as provocateurs and informers, thwarting
every attempt at a peaceful and democratic solu-
tion of the Cuban crisis, despite the fact that this
could have been done through vigorous and con-
certed effort by the workers jointly with students,
office employees, peasants and other strata of the
population.

“However,” the Appeal continues, ‘‘the imperial-
ist support so far rendered to the Batista govern-
ment is not adequate.

“Tt has not held in check the growing national
resentment, the sharpening crisis and the spread-
ing armed revolt which began in the mountain
districts in the East of the country; it has not
prevented the workers from ridding themselves
of the bureaucratic control of the Muhal clique,
the peasants from fighting for their demands, the
popular movement from spreading, nor the pro-
gram of national liberation, economic development,
agrarian reform, race equality, democracy, pro-
gress and peace from taking more concrete shape
and attracting bigger sections of the population.

“Open support by the present U.S. Ambassador
Smith for the election farce did not prevent the
people from seeing through the rigged elections
and rejecting them.

“That is why the American imperialists and the
Batista government, acting in concert, are now

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

trying to turn the support from the outside into
naked intervention in order to crush the people
of Cuba with American men and weapons.

Lincoln White’s vilification of the Revolutionary
Army and the July 26 Movement in connection
with the detention by the Revolutionary Army of
two U.S. citizens, who had been released before
he made his statements, constitutes open, intoler-
able interference in the internal affairs of Cuba
and brazen support of the tyranny and its crimes.”’

The brief detention of the two U.S. citizens, says
the Appeal, was ‘“‘distorted by White and used as
the pretext for foul propaganda against the in-
surgents with a view to preparing public opinion
for the projected direct military invasion, for it
is precisely this that explains the recent develop-
ments and moves of the U.S. authorities in rela-
tion to Cuba.

“Provocations pursuing this aim do not end with
statements by Lincoln White, they go farther... .
The Washington Government despatched an air-
craft carrier to Nicaro on the pretext of ‘helping’
to evacuate 50 American women and children from
this part of Cuba. But it is perfectly clear that
this is neither more nor less than a demonstration
of force in support of the tyranny and against
the insurgent army and Cuba.

“The U.S. Government, posing as a champion
of the ‘free world’ and ‘democracy,’ abetted the
installing in our country of the most anti-national,
reactionary, terrorist dictatorship in our history,
a dictatorship which maintains itself by murder
and by the most brutal and incredible torture and
repression.

“We categorically protest against Lincoln White’s
statements, against the despatch of an aircraft
carrier to Nicaro, against the interference by the
North American authorities in Cuba’s internal af-
fairs and their support of the Batista dictatorship.

‘‘We denounce the designs of the North Ameri-
cans for even more naked and crude interference
in Cuba’s affairs.

“We call upon the people of Cuba, all public
personalities, all who have preserved at least a
little love for their country and some feeling of
national dignity, to protest against this foreign
intervention in our domestic affairs and against
the attempts to place our country in an even
more difficult and humiliating position as a result
of open military invasion.

“We expose these facts and designs of the im-
perialists before Latin America, before the people
of North America and all the people of the world
so that their support can help us to put an end
to foreign intervention in our affairs and prevent
our country from becoming another Lebanon as

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WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 69

a result of foreign occupation and support for

the Batista dictatorship and the policy of main-
taining the present regime.

‘People of Cuba, workers, peasants, office em-
ployees, students, women and youth! Protest and

rally against the foreign intervention! Uphold: the
right of the Cuban people to decide their. own
destiny! vit

“This is a severe test tor patriots. Let us face
it with dignity!”

A Nationwide Movement
to Accelerate Development

T the Seventh Congress of the Bulgarian

Communist Party it was announced that
socialism had triumphed in the economy and cul-
tural life of the country, marking a new stage in
its development—the period of completing the
building of socialist society and creating the ma-
terial and ideological conditions for the gradual
transition to communism.

In view of the enhanced economic potentialities,
the Central Committee advanced the slogan: cut
down the time scheduled for carrying out the
national-economic tasks and reach the Third Five-
Year Plan (1958-62) targets for output and national
income in three or four years.

At the November meeting of the Central Com-
mittee Todor Zhivkov, First Secretary of the
Party, pointed out that while the transition to
communism is a gradual process, it is, neverthe-
less, accompanied by leaps. The profound changes
that have taken place, he said, have paved the way
for a swift economic advance.

In the last ten years industry has made rapid
and all-round progress. Agriculture has been com-
pletely reconstructed along socialist lines. There is
considerable mechanization of labor processes both
in industry and agriculture, in building and in
transport. The country now has large numbers of
highly qualified specialists, possessing secondary
and higher education and boundlessly loyal to
socialism. Professional skill and political con-
sciousness among workers and co-operators are at
a high level. The Party has improved its work,
and the leading role of the branches has been en-
hanced. After the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU
and the meeting of our Central Committee in April
1956, elements of subjectivism in the leadership of
the country were eliminated and the conditions
created for a timely solution of pressing social,
political, economic and cultural problems.

These developments have made possible and
necessary a further leap in economic expansion
and an accelerated rate of growth.

Fulfilment of the Five-Year Plan in three or
four years in the spheres of output and national
income will not be an easy matter. It means that
in 1959 agriculture should nearly double the. 1958

output and treble it by 1960; it is anticipated that
by the end of 1961 industry, transport, the build-
ing industry and trade will contribute 15,000 million
leva more to the national income than envisaged
in the plan. This task is quite feasible, it is within
the power of the people.

The relatively high level of development reached
so far facilitates utilization of vast untapped re-
serves. These are to be found first and foremost
in making fuller use of production capacities, in
the good prospects for extending the raw material
base of industry and construction, in manpower
resources by drawing the co-operators into useful
work throughout the yearly cycle and by using
office employees in industry and building from
30 to 40 days a year.

Amalgamation of the co-operatives offers very
favorable opportunities for a rapid advance in agri-
culture. Co-operatives farming 500, 1,000 and 1,500
hectares are merging to form bigger farms with
an area of 5,000, 10,000 and more hectares. This
is a qualitatively new stage in the co-operative
movement. The enlarged co-operatives, using their
own resources and manpower, are concentrating
on extending the material-production base, making
fuller use of the land, enlarging the planned irri-
gated area of 0.6 million to one million hectares
by the end of the plan period, on rapidly developing
livestock-raising and perennial cultures, and on
raising the yields of grain and industrial crops.

The Central Committee and the Government are
aware that fulfilment of the Five-Year Plan in
three or four years is bound to raise new problems
in the spheres of timely procurement and process-
ing of products, their transportation, sale and so
on. Measures are now being taken quickly to ex-
pand the capacities of the processing industry and
transport and the material-production base of the
co-operatives. Numerous specialists have been sent
to co-operatives to help build irrigation systems.

A vital factor in the drive to fulfil the Five-Year
Plan ahead of schedule is the growing economic
might of the socialist world system, the vast fra-
ternal aid of ‘the Soviet Union and the growing
mutual aid and co-operation between all the. social-
ist countries: | a Pie

70

The call to fulfil the Five-Year Plan in 3 or 4
years has met with a ready response among the
workers, co-operators and intellectuals. It has en-
gendered a powerful nationwide movement. Re-
search workers, engineers, technicians, agricultural
experts, factory workers and peasant co-operators
are discovering and utilizing fresh resources. Better
labor organization and technological methods are
being introduced; machinery and equipment mod-
ernized; measures taken to economize on materials,
improve quality and commission new production
capacities ahead of schedule. Steps are also being
taken to make wider use of local water resources,
to drain marshland, improve meadows and pas-
tures, use stable manure, extend the area under
perennial crops and improve the care of poultry
and cattle.

Naturally, the nationwide drive to fulfil the eco-
nomic tasks ahead of schedule is not without its
difficulties. But these in the main are of a subjec-
tive nature. They arise because of misunderstand-
ing of the new tasks and because of bad manage-
ment. We still have not a few leading Party and
Government officials and executives and some
workers who fail to see that the task is not simply
to overfulfil the plan but to make such a leap in
development that every year will, by its results,
be the equivalent of several years of gradual devel-
opment. The new movement is also retarded by a
lack of faith on the part of some leaders in the
strength of the working people, in the possibility

WORLD MARKIST REVIEW

of accomplishing the task; it is retarded, too, by
conservatism and bureaucracy. Persuasion and
widespread explanatory work are the chief means
of getting over these difficulties.

The Party’s organizational and political work,
and the press and radio, are now centered on
removing these obstacles, on overcoming conserv-
ative and backward methods and norms and on
drawing all the working people into the drive to
fulfil the economic tasks ahead of schedule.

The Party leadership—from Political Bureau to
branch secretary—is participating in the organiza-
tional and political work in order to give free rein
to popular initiative and activity and to extend the
movement as widely as possible.

The working people are well aware that fulfil-
ment of the Five-Year Plan in 3-4 years will result
in a substantial increase in income and pave the
way for a considerable rise in living and cultural
standards. This makes them work with increased
vigor for overfulfilment of the plan.

The dimensions of the popular movement led by
the Communist Party give grounds for believing
that in the next few years Bulgaria will succeed
in making the planned leap and, by doing so, make
her contribution to the victory of the socialist world
system in its competition with the capitalist world.

M. GRIGOROV
Secretary of the Central Committee,
Bulgarian Communist Party

Eleventh Congress of the Chilean
Communist Party

HE Eleventh Congress of the Chilean Commu-

nist Party, attended by over 300 delegates,
took place in the Conference Hall of the National
Congress in Santiago in mid-November. For the
first time after eleven difficult years of underground
struggle the Communists again met legally to dis-
cuss the burning problems of the Party and the
ways and means of implementing the Program
adopted at the 1956 Congress. The Congress was
opened by Elias Lafertte, and in addition to dele-
gates from fraternal parties of Latin America and
Europe, leaders of the parties affiliated to the
Popular Action Front were present at the opening.
The Congress demonstrated the cohesion and the
growing activity of the Party. It was preceded by
1,500 -branch meetings and 159 district and 25
regional conferences.

The report on the work of the Central Committee,
delivered by Luiz Corvalan, Secretary-General,

reviewed the valiant struggle waged by the people

and the Party in recent years and mapped out
new tasks.

Jose Hernandez, member of the political com-
mission of the Central Committee, spoke on the
organizational, ideological and political strengthen-
ing of the Party and its mass work. He reported
that the Galo Gonsalez Enrolment (announced in
March 1958) had more than doubled the member-
ship.

After regaining legal status the question arose of
revising the Rules adopted at the Tenth Congress,
held when the Party was underground. Elias La-
fertte reported on the amendments aimed at
strengthening inner-Party discipline, collective lead-
ership and extending contacts with the masses.
The section on probationers, which had the effect
of impeding the growth of the Party, was left out,
the section dealing with sympathizers was extended
and the scale of membership dues reduced. With a
view to enhancing revolutionary vigilance, control

CUE EAN MRE RS IER OR ts ANN

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SSNs aeRO SESS 0 Pha eA op, wa

Sn re ee

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iidink ahs pas

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 71

commissions under the auspices of the regicnal
Party committees will be set up. Special attention
was devoted to the factory branches. The leading
body of the Party will now have, in addition to
full members of the Central Committee, alternate
members.

Factory and office workers, intellectuals and
dozens of delegates from the recently formed Party
organizations in the countryside took part in the
four-day discussion. Some of the delegates employ-
ed on nearby estates had to leave the sessions
earlier so that they could get home before the
landlord closed the gates. Delegates from the
Indian communities spoke of the privations and
struggle of their people in Coquimbo, in the Central
Valley and in the Indian South.

At the closing session Orlando Millas, member of
the political commission, on behalf of the Central
Committee summed up the work of the Congress
which unanimously endorsed the Party Program
and elected the central bodies. The first meeting
of the new Central Committee re-elected Elias
Lafertte and Luiz Corvalan chairman and secre-
tary-general of the Party respectively.

Keynote of the Congress was unity and unshak-
able fidelity to Marxism-Leninism. The Congress
associated itself with the other Communist parties
in condemning Yugoslav revisionism and denounc-

ed the revisionist tendencies that had appeared re-
cently in the Party and were reflected in the
demand that it should not contest the presidential
elections since this might ‘‘irritate the bourgeoisie.”
The attempts made by vacillating elements to
stress the antagonisms between the working class
and the national bourgeoisie and to regard as
secondary the basic antagonism with U.S. imperial-
ism were strongly rebutted.

In view of the formation of the reactionary Jorge
Alesandri government the Congress advanced the
task of consolidating all forces, including the
Popular Action Front and the centrist parties, in
the struggle for broader democracy and popular
rights, for a higher standard of living and measures
to reduce unemployment, protection of the coun-
try’s resources, above all oil, from encroachments
by foreign monopolies and for multilateral eco-
nomic, cultural and diplomatic relations. The Con-
gress set as the primary task the drawing of
the working people into the trade unions and
consolidation of the worker-peasant alliance.

The delegate from Mejillones expressed the opin-
ion of all when he said: ‘‘We must work more
among the masses. If I bring a tree into the
house it will cease to grow and wither. But if I
plant it outside, in the fresh air and sunshine, it
will thrive.” ;

The Hungarian People Vote
for the Policy of the Party

HE political aim of the elections to the State
Assembly and the local councils in the Hun-
garian People’s Republic was to strengthen people’s
rule. This aim has been achieved. People’s rule
has been strengthened and, after the counter-
revolution, the consolidation of the forces of the
people has been completed, both formally and as
a fact.

The elections proved that the Party’s policy
during the past two years, which has secured a
considerably higher standard of living, eliminated
the distortions so harmful to the peasants’ inter-
ests and re-established socialist law, is based on
the unity of the whole people. The working class
unanimously supports this policy, with the result
that it now feels itself much more the master of
the land. First and foremost the Party relies upon
the working class and one of its constant concerns
is to improve conditions for the workers. The
working class marked the elections by new suc-
cesses and fulfilment of production plans.

The peasants—members of the producer co-oper-
atives and individual tillers—also voted “FOR.”

During the election campaign, the Party and the
Fatherland Front left no doubts that they fully
supported the development of agriculture along
co-operative lines. It is a fact that many individual
tillers still hesitate and cannot make up their
minds about joining the co-operatives. But they
feel certain that no one will force them to do this
against their will, and appreciate that the co-
operative movement is a purely voluntary one.
The peasants now understand that the future of
the countryside lies in socialism. And though many
are still holding back they no longer recoil from
the thought of the co-operatives.

The election results have further consolidated
the worker-peasant alliance.

The intellectuals also voted ‘‘FOR.” Their aims,
plans, worries and problems link them to the Party.
They are asking for more laboratories, school
equipment and other facilities, and this is in line
with the strivings of people and Party, the plans
for continued construction of socialism.

The past mistakes caused confusion among the
intellectuals, but they were shaken even more by

72 WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

the counter-revolutionary terror of 1956. Time has
shattered the petty-bourgeois illusions harbored by
some of the intellectuals who dreamed of “class
peace,” and has given them an object lesson in
imperialism’s unrestrained brutality and the revi-
sionists’ base betrayal of the interests of their
people and country.

Our intelligentsia now holds another opinion on
the nature and significance of the errors commit-
ted, and declares unequivocally that the Hungarian
People’s Republic has, nevertheless, tremendous
achievements to its credit and that, thanks to the
dictatorship of the proletariat, Hungary is now an
industrially-developed country in which a national
cultural revolution is taking place, in which life
has taken a turn for the better. They are con-
vinced that the mistakes did not stem from the
essence of the Party’s policy, or the tasks of
socialist construction, and note with satisfaction
that dogmatism has now no place in Party prac-
tice. No small role was played by the discussion of
the Party’s policy in the field of culture. Many
fundamental questions were cleared up during these
frank and sincere talks, many doubts dispelled and
new contacts, based on mutual resnect, established.

Some intellectuals still have reservations on par-
ticular questions, but, in the main, they agree
with the Party on all important problems of social-
ist construction, resolutely oppose capitalism, con-
demn the counter-revolution and participate active-
ly in peaceful, constructive labor.

The working people as a whole are feeling the
beneficial effects of the Party’s policy.

And the people have also learned more about
the so-called Western prosperity. The Western
“democratic’’ countries did the agitational work
for them. Nearly forty thousand sincere Hunga-
rians who, in October 1956, found themselves in the
West, enticed there by irresponsible promises, have
now returned home. Bitterly disappointed and
ashamed of their credulity, they are now con-
vincingly exposing the ‘delights of the Western
way of life.” Their words find confirmation in the
letters of tens of thousands of refugees expressing
the wish to return home.

Whom did the people put forward as their can-
didates? Communists and non-party people who
had stood the test of the 1956 counter-revolution
and have unswervingly and consistently pursued
our Party’s policy—a policy that reflects the inter-
ests of the people. All the members of the outgoing
State Assembly qualifying under these counts were
re-elected. The members not returned were those
who failed in fulfilling their duties, who, over the
past few years, did not steadfastly uphold the dic-
tatorship of: the proletariat, made concessions to
‘révisionism, vacillated in time of trouble and sup-
“ported sectarianism.

Parliament now has more worker deputies; the
composition of the State Assembly is as follows:
169 workers, 75 land workers (both members of
producer co-operatives and individual tillers), 78
professional workers, 16 office employees and
others.

Among them are representatives of the Church,
many non-Party people, and ex-leaders and mem-
bers of the former political parties. The compo-
sition truly reflects the unity that has now been
established among the people on the basis of the
Party’s policy.

The working people, through their vote, have
confirmed their friendship with the Soviet Union,
their adherence to the socialist camp and their
loyalty to the principles of proletarian internation-
alism. The hostile anti-Soviet instigations have had
the reverse of the desired effect. It was precisely
October 1956 that showed to all who was friend
and who the enemy. The people saw that the Soviet
Union defends the independent national existence
of Hungary even at the cost of heavy losses to
itself. Proletarian internationalism, fraternal soli-
darity of the people building socialism and their
disinterested aid were felt with exceptional force
in Hungary.

It is characteristic that even the Western capital-
ist press was unable to by-pass the election results.

Over 60 foreign journalists, including about 20
from Western news agencies and newspapers, re-
ported the elections. Nothing was concealed from
them either in the course of the campaign or
during the voting. They were free to go wherever
they wished, see what they wanted to s:e and
speak to whoever they desired.

The pre-election atmosnohere was calm, relaxed,
and there was no demagogy about the meetings;
most of them turned into talks, i.e., gatherings
where leaders and rank-and-file, Party and non-
Party people, exchanged views. The people were
impressed by the fact that there was no ballyhoo
about the election campaign, there was absolute
frankness, and the agitation was ‘aot over their
heads. Ordinary peovle said: ‘“‘We are not cast'ng
our votes for promises, but for results.” ‘The
work of two years has won and justified itself, the
Party doesn’t need a lot of noisy electioneering.”’

There was no duress, each could exercise his
right to vote, but none was under compulsion to
do so.

Foreign correspondents saw for themselves that
every polling station had separate booths, each
supplied with pencils in case the elector wished to
make any changes in the list or vote against. The
use of sealed envelopes and urns guaranteed
secrecy. The gay crowds chatted and sang in the
streets and at the polling stations. In all some
416,000 people—65 per cent non-Party—helped

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te tek

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Fn Ment yt ON Ae ae Beas ae

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 73

throughout the country at the polling stations or
acted as tellers and served on other committees.

There was not a single organized hostile provo-
cation; the forces of reaction were isolated, de-
moralized, incapacitated.

The pre-election campaign and the elections were
fully constitutional, met the requirements of law
and in all respects manifested the far-reaching
democracy of our people’s-democratic system.

It is to the credit of some bourgeois journalists
that they wrote objectively about the calm and
free atmosphere, the abundance of goods in the
shops and the increasing well-being, and made a
point of the confidence reposed by the people in
the Party and Government, although they denied
that proletarian rule was democratic. In their
view there was nationwide voting but no election
in Hungary. They claimed that there could only
be elections where several parties contested seats.
Yes, our election was also nationwide voting for
the Party’s policy and socialism, and the elector-
ate gave free expression to its will. As far as the
candidates are concerned, the voters had every
opportunity to discuss their relative merits
and of choosing the most reliable champions of
their interests.

Forty-five per cent of the electorate attended
the pre-election meetings which nominated the
candidates, who were only placed on the list by
the decision of the meeting. Of the more than
100,000 candidates for the urban and rural councils,
5,458 proposed by local bodies were rejected, and
the electors nominated others. Ninety-one candi-
dates to local bodies failed to secure election, and
additional elections will be held in these districts.
The democracy of our electoral system and regime
was not disputed, but, on the contrary, found
confirmation in the fact that the approximately
three million voters who attended the election
meetings did not nominate a single former land-
owner, banker or exploiter.

And it is precisely for this reason that the
Western propagandists do not like the democracy
of our electoral system.

The election took place two years after the
imperialists unleashed their counter-revolutionary
putsch. At that time about 70 small parties sprang
up, and each of them, no matter what it called
itself, had the same obiective on the question of
power—the major question—and that was, to wrest
it from the workers, destroy the socialist system
and re-establish capitalism. But the Hungarian
people will not allow this question to become an
issue, for the problem has been solved once and
for all. Wise with the experience of combating
counter-revolution, our people have matured poli-
tically. The election results are convincing proof
of this.

We had no particular election slogans, neither
did we proclaim a new program. On the contrary,
what we said was: “‘Citizens, vote for the policy
pursued by our Party and Government since No-
vember 4, 1956, a policy which, in effect, is the
one the party has been conducting since the
liberation.”” This policy has now become the
people’s program. The allegation that the revolu-
tionary worker-peasant government merely repre-
sents the views of a “group” are false and absurd,
and the elections exploded this falsehoood.

A broad unity of the people within the framework
of the Fatherland Front, led by the Socialist Work-
ers’ Party, has emerged out of the struggle to
implement the policy of the Party and Government.
The 6,500,000 votes cast on November 16 testify
to this unity.

Our enemies hypocritically lament that this policy
does not guarantee the country’s independence,
although, as the whole world knows, it was they
who, relying on their accomplices within the coun-
try, threatened our independence in 1956, and are
now inspiring new provocations against us. The
election results attest that the Hungarian people
firmly reject all interference, whether under U.N.
auspices or not, in their domestic affairs. With
the help of the Soviet Union and the entire socialist
camp, our people are consolidating their socialist
state, safeguarding the sovereignty of People’s
Hungary.

In the election campaign the enemy found him-
self completely isolated: 99.6 per cent of the elec-
torate voted for the Fatherland Front candidates.

The people expressed their complete confidence
in the policy pursued by our Party and Govern-
ment and have empowered them to continue it.
They approve our firmness in wiping out the
counter-revolutionary forces, our relentless strug-
gle against revisionist ideas and against dogmatism.
They approve also the fact that in the past two
years we have spoken frankly of our difficulties,
have been boldly overcoming them, and consist-
ently pursuing a policy in keeping with the interests
of the people.

The ideological, political and organizational unity
of our Party gained strength during the electoral
campaign, the militancy of our organizations and
the activity of the Party membership grew, and
the Party’s ties with the masses became stronger.

The splendid election results give us no right,
however, to rest on our laurels. They do not mean
that we have solved all our problems, that every
difficulty has been overcome. There are still grave
shortcomings in the work of our Party and Gov-
ernment bodies. Our leaders and the masses spoke
of these frankly, both before and during the election
campaign. We shall try to bring non-Party people

74

still closer to our Party by improving the style
and methods of the Party work. We hold that it
is just as important to lend an ear to the opinions
of non-Party people after the elections, and to
make still greater efforts to draw them into state

management.

Austria

A VISIT TO CZECH FRIENDS

AST autumn 2,046 members of the Austriaa
Communist Party spent a couple of days in
53 towns. and rural districts of Czechoslovakia
with a view to familiarizing themselves with the
problems of socialist construction and the life of
the working people. Among them were hundreds
of members of factory committees and munici-
palities. They toured factories, agricultural co-op-
eratives and various institutions. About 75 per
cent of the Austrian comrades put up at the homes
of Communist workers and intellectuals, and this
enabled them to get a better knowledge of the
every-day life of the working people and to make
friends with them.

This visit proved most instructive to both the
Austrian and Czech comrades. The visitors were
able to see for themselves the achievements of
the fraternal Communist Party. They took back
with them telling facts and new arguments which
would help in their day-to-day Party work. They
told their Czech friends about life in capitalist
Austria, which is far from being the “paradise”’
of bourgeois propaganda, and the Communists of
Czechoslovakia were able to compare the economic
position of their socialist country with that of their
capitalist neighbor.

The talks, during which members of both Parties
exchanged views on the situation and experiences
in solving the problems of their countries, proved
particularly interesting.

The guests were most impressed by the cordi-
ality and hospitality accorded them by the Czech
and Slovak people.

The visit served to strengthen proletarian inter-
nationalism and the fraternal ties between the
two parties.

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

The election results will promote socialist con-
struction which our people will carry out still more
resolutely and faster.

ISTVAN SZIRMAI,
Member, Central Committee,
Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party.

Short

Notices

Argentina.

MARXIST-LENINIST
EDUCATION

ITH the spread of the democratic liberation
movement in Argentina, the ranks of the
Communist Party are growing rapidly. Thousands
of railwaymen, textile workers, metal-workers,
builders and workers from other trades, intellectu-
als and housewives, are joining the Party. The
Party organization in the capital registered 10,000
new members in 1958. Hence Party education is
most important, for we must help the new mem-
bers to acquire a knowledge of Marxist-Leninist
theory.

Numerous classes — the first stage of Party
education — have been arranged and will study
the international situation and the Communists’
tasks in the fight for peace and national indepen-
dence. The home situation and the solutions advanc-
ed by the Party are discussed in broad outline;
the building of a national-democratic front is one
of the main topics. One class deals with the
functions of a Party branch.

These classes aim to equip the members with
an understanding of the role of the Party, the
importance of unity of will and action, the duties
of members and other basic points of the Party
Program, tactics and Rules.

A large edition of the study-outline for the classes
has been published as an aid to propagandists.

Party journals and newspapers carry articles
on these subjects and excerpts from the classics
of Marxism-Leninism. On the occasion of the 41st
anniversary of the October Revolution, Nueva Era,
the Party’s theoretical organ, carried a column
with maps, diagrams and illustrations on the theme
of “‘41 years of rapid growth of socialism and the
world crisis of imperialism.”

Alongside a network of elementary Party schools
we are organizing independent study of Marxist-

ee I a ee

Aelalignsy

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 75

Leninist theory. The Party education commissions
of the provincial (regional) committees are arrang-
ing three-year courses for students of theory. The
syllabus includes political economy, the funda-
mentals of Marxist philosophy and problems of
tactics. Lenin’s “‘What is to Be Done?’ “Two
Tactics of Social-Democracy in the Democratic
Revolution,’’ “‘ ‘Left-Wing Communism,’ an Infantile
Disorder” are studied. The students are given a
syllabus with advice on the method of studying
these works; they attend lectures and meet once
a month at group consultations where their ques-
tions are answered, and take part in talks. There
are usually about ten to twelve people in a group.

Loca] (district) Party committees also arrange
courses of this type. In Buenos Aires Province
they cater for more than 300 members, among
whom are many workers. If a Party member is
unable to attend the group consultations he is
mailed the material and a meeting is arranged
with his tutor. Many of the comrades who have
completed these courses function as tutors, speak
in the Party organizations and deliver public
lectures.

So great is the interest displayed in the study
of Marxism-Leninism that trade union leaders—
non-Communists and rank-and-file workers—often
ask local Party organizations for help in studying
the Marxist-Leninist classics.

Venezuela
A PUBLIC REPORT ON
UNDERGROUND
ACTIVITIES

HE overthrow in January 1958 of dictator
Perez Jiménez, stooge of U.S. imperialism,
ended the almost eight years of underground activi-
ties by the Communist Party of Venezuela. Since
then the ranks of the Party have grown rapidly
and its activities evoke increasing interest. At
the same time the anti-Communist campaign is
being stepped up, and the reactionaries are playing
their old record—accusing the Party of being
“unpatriotic.”

The exhibition of illegal publications arranged by
the Communist Party and the Young Communist
League in one of the largest exhibition halls of
the capital was a fitting reply to these slanders.
It was timed to open on the Young Communist
League’s llth anniversary and developed into a
kind of public report of the Communists’ glorious
activities during the years of illegality.

The many visitors saw, among others, news-
papers such as Acero (Steel), Patria Nueva (New
Fatherland), Joven Guardia (Young Guard). The
journal Amistad (Friendship) attracted widespread
attention. During the years of trouble and terror
it told the people the truth about the Soviet Union
and the People’s Democracies. In addition to
publications put out by the Party printshop there
were on view numerous newspapers, leaflets and
proclamations which had been mimeographed or
simply copied by hand. Considerable interest was
also displayed in the outlines for political study
groups which were printed in brevier type.

Possession of illegal literature during the fascist
dictatorship was punishable by death, so many
papers were burnt after being read. Many editions
were destroyed during searches and arrests. No
copies of the hand-written papers issued by poli-
tical prisoners in jails and concentration camps
have been preserved.

Only the joint publications of the Party, the
Youth League and youth committees were exhibit-
ed. But separate Party papers and journals sum-
moning the people to fight the North American
oil monopolies and their henchman Perez Jiménez,
were also published. The Party’s central organ
Tribuna Popular, a 12-16-page daily, appeared on
February 17, 1948, (the Sunday circulation was
in the neighborhood of 22,000); 550 issues were
published legally. The censorship suppressed the
paper seven times until finally, in May 1950, it
was banned altogether. But eight days later the
first illegal issue appeared, reporting the arrest
of 6,457 strikers. The circulation of 4,000 during
1955-56 rose to 8,000 in 1957. The paper was kept
going by collections and was published by a small
group in an underground printshop. It had volun-
tary contributors all over the country and kept
its readers regularly informed on major events
at home and abroad.

Many Communist newspapers such as Estrella
Roja (Red Star) in the capital and Cabimas, La
Cispa (Spark) in Anzoategui, Tribuna in El Tigre,
Marina Roja (Red Fleet) in Zulia, Combate in San
Tomé, Hoz y Martillo (Hammer and Sickle) in
Lagunillas, El Organizador (Organizer) in the
Federal district, Triuchera Popular (People’s
Trenches) in Lidice, Paz (Peace) in Valera and
others, also did their bit in mobilizing the masses
for the overthrow of the pro-imperialist regime.

Yellow with age, these publications attest to the
heroic struggle waged by the Communists of
Venezuela for democratic rights, the sovereignty
of their country and its socialist morrow. The
exhibition makes a lasting impression. A visitor
expressed the general opinion when he said: “The
passion, risk, ardent love for freedom and heroism
in every line of these exhibits are immeasurable.”

Canada

FIGHTING THE REVISIONIST-
TROTSKYITE BLOC

AVING suffered a crushing defeat at the Sixth

Convention of the Labor-Progressive Party
of Canada, the revisionists, in conjunction with
Trotskyites and an anti-Party group of bourgeois
nationalists, are trying to knock together a new
political party.

The National Executive Committee (Political
Bureau), in addition to other measures for drawing
Communists into actively combating revisionists
of all hues, has circulated a letter to the Party
membership calling upon them to expose this
unprincipled alliance which is based on the struggle
against Marxism-Leninism and socialism, while
covering itself with the mantle of Marxism.

The letter warns that ‘“‘in Canada there is 2
very serious tendency to ignore the activities of
this Trotskyite group. Many of our comrades
assume that, because the group commands limited
support, it is not necessary to combat its anti-
Communist activities. This attitude is completely
erroneous. It is quite clear now that the anti-
Communist groups are receiving direction on an
international scale. They are joining forces on the
completely unprincipled basis of opposition to the
Soviet Union, that is, in fact, against the socialist
world system.”

The letter goes on to say that this revisionist-
Trotskyite activity is “the Canadian aspect of
attempts being made by heterogeneous elements
in several countries. The leaders of the Yugoslav
League of Communists are trying hard to create
at least an appearance of worldwide support for
their anti-Leninist, anti-socialist position. They
want to claim organized support in a number of
countries for their mish-mash of brazen revision-
ism and double-talk. Their position is quite accept-
able to the United States government .. .”

Continuing, the letter calls unon the Party mem-
bers to develop a militant ideological offensive
against the revisionists. The Party press shows
where the class roots of opportunism lie; how
the right and left variants of opportunism objec-
tively serve the same ends and, eventually, join
forces to fight Marxism-Leninism and socialism
and so enter the slippery path leading to renegacy.

The Party has come out of these struggles
stronger, with a leadership and membership whose
understanding of the principles and method of
Marxism-Leninism has been greatly strengthened,
and with a deeper appreciation of the seed to
combine the concreteness of Canadian reality with
the general laws of the struggle against capitalism
and for socialism, which are common to all

countries.

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

The letter expresses confidence that the new
attacks of the Trotskyites and revisionists against
Marxism-Leninism will be defeated.

Korean People’s Democratic Republic

MASS MOVEMENT FOR
UNTAPPED RESERVES

LL organizations of the Party of Labor have

discussed a letter adopted at the September
plenary meeting of the Central Committee. It calls
on Party members and all working people to step
up activity and give free rein to initiative in
seeking new ways of developing the country’s
productive forces.

A decision adopted by the meeting calls for
irrigating 70 per cent of the cultivated land within
the next two or three years, including rice-fields
and arid land. In a country where arable land is
limited and severe droughts are common, the
Party’s program for transforming nature. will mean
a big leap in agricultural producton. An output
of more than seven million tons of grain is envis-
aged for the near future.

The second task set by the meeting was devel-
opment of the iron and steel industry. The founda-
tions will be laid for a solid material base which,
in the next four to five years, should ensure a
production of over four million tons of pig-iron
and from three to three-and-a-half million tons of
steel. With this aim in view iron and steel plants
and ore-mines will be re-equipped and time sched-
ules cut for building new enterprises. The nation-
wide movement for economizing on metal is ac-
quiring tremendous importance.

These tasks have aroused enthusiasm among
the people, and many proposals are being advanced
at Party and public meetings. Workers’ sugges-
tions for the mechanization and automation of
production processes, the introduction of advanced
labor methods, and improving skills, will make it
possible to double or treble productivity at many
plants and mines and to overfulfil the 1959 plan
by at least 100 per cent without increasing man-
power. Managerial staffs are being cut extensively
and office workers are volunteering for industry.
A mass movement for innovations has _ been
launched at the factories, and a struggle against
conservatism, apathy and stagnation is under way.

The building of socialism is advancing rapidly:
the urgent need of the moment is to modernize
the enterprises and accelerate the tempo of social-
ist construction. The Party organizations are
concentrating on solving this task.

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WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 77

Portugal

FREE ALVARO CUNHAL!

OR ten years Alvaro Cunhal, member of ihe

Central Committee of the Portuguese Com-
munist Party (a member of the Secretariat before
his arrest), has been languishing in a fascist
torture-chamber. In January 1957 his term of
imprisonment expired, but under the “‘security
measures” he will have to serve another three
years.

Alvaro Cunhal has been an active fighter for
peace and socialism all his life. As a member of
the Communist Youth League he participated in
student actions, courageously upholding the inter-
ests of his fellow-students who held him in high
esteem. Arrested when in the last year of the
faculty of law, he graduated with honors, having
prepared for the finals in prison.

Upon his release in 1940, Alvaro Cunhal imme-
diately resumed revolutionary work. The leaders
of the Party, including Benito Gonsalvez, were
then in prison. Adventurists and provocateurs had
worked their way into the leadershiv. Together
with other loyal comrades Cunhal purged and
reorganized the Party. In 1942 he was elected io
the Secretariat of the C.C. in which he worked
until his arrest in 1949.

At the trial in May 1950 he ably rebutted the
charges made against him and the Party by the
fasicsts. His sveech from the dock, known to the
people and published in the journals of a number
of fraternal parties, was an indictment of fascism.

He exposed the vile actions of the secret police.
Speaking of the staunchness of the Communists
who had fallen into the clutches of the enemy,
he stressed that the Communist Party was a school
of political education, of molding will, courage
and fidelity to the people.

The reactionaries, he said, act in unison through-
out the world, and the Communist Party should,
therefore, establish contacts with all fraternal
parties in order to uphold peace and _ national
indenendence. He laid bare the aggressive designs
of NATO, of which Portugal is a member, and
declared that, in the event of the imperialists
succeeding in unleashing war against the Soviet
Union and the Peovle’s Democracies, then ‘‘the
people of Portugal, in the interests of the indepen-
dence, freedom, welfare and future of thir country,
will not fight against their best friends and allies.”

At that t'me the calls made for the release of
Alvaro Cunhal did not prevent the severe sentence.
Now that his term of imprisonment has long
expired, an anceal is being circulated in the
country demanding ‘‘freedom for Alvaro Cunhal
or at least permission to live abroad.”’ The appeal
has been signed by, among others, 92 prominent

lawyers, writers, professors, former ministers and
deputies, journalists and army officers—people of
diverse political views and religious beliefs. It is

meeting with the support of all working people.

Progressives all over the world support and
sympathize with the Portuguese people fighting
for the release of their faithful son from the
fascist torture-chamber.

Federal Republic of Germany
CALL FOR UNITY

N connection with the fortieth anniversary of the

November Revolution, a plenary meeting of
the Central Committee of the Communist Party
of Germany adopted the following appeal to the
members and functionaries of the Social Demo-
cratic Party:

“‘Let us reach out our hands to each other and
fulfil the behests of the best fighters of the German
working class! Let us join efforts in winning peace
and democracy! ,

“Tell the SDPG leadership that you emphatically
insist on combating atomic armament and imper-
ialism and will never agree to support the policy
of the Christian Democratic Union! Stand firm
by the principle proclaimed by Bebel: ‘Not a
single man or farthing for this system!’

“Young workers, young Socialists!

“Do not volunteer for the Bundeswehr! Let your
slogan be: uncompromising struggle against mili-
tarism, down with conscription!

“Social Democrats!

“Demand rejection of the fatal collaboration
with the militarists, of the nernicious anti-Com-
munist witch-hunt! You will then, with still greater
force, be able to counteract the menace of atomic
death, militarization and fascization. And this will
add to the influence exerted by the peace forces
and, not least, by the Social-Democratic working
people, as well as their political say in the decisive
problems of our time. Discuss our proposals and
those of the Socialist Unity Party on how to reach
mutual understanding in the working class and
its organizations! Rise in joint struggle, for by
joining our forces we shall defeat our enemies!

‘“‘We appeal to the members and functionaries
of our own Party:

“In the present conditions we must, now more
than ever before, continue to try to establish
broader contact with Social Democratic workers
and functionaries. But we must not, because of
the SDPG Right-wing leadership’s stand, depart
one iota from our Party’s general line, or slacken
our fight for working-class unity of action. For
it is only through the co-operation and joint strug-
gle of the working class and all peace-loving forces

78 WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

against the common enemy—aggressive monopo-
lies, militarists and atom-bomb politicians—that
we can secure peace and the national regeneration
of Germany!”

Japan

DIFFERENT FORMS OF WORK
AMONG THE MASSES

INCE its Seventh Congress the Communist
Party of Japan has stepped up its work
among the masses. It is conducting this work in
a variety of ways and spreading its ideas among
different sections of the people. A number of de-
partments have been set up to replace the former
Central Committee Mass Movement Department:
a trade union denartment, a department for work
among the peasants, departments for activities
among youth, students and women. Much impor-
tance is attached to Party work among the non-
trade unionists in the small factories and among
handicraftsmen. The Central Committee has as-
signed organizers to give practical help to the
Party branches in the big industrial centers and
has pin-pointed a group of districts in which it is
most important to extend Party work among the
peasants.

The three C.C. plenary meetings held since the
Party Congress, discussed the question of mass
work. The last meeting reviewed the problems
facing the labor movement and discussed the
report on Party work among students and measures
to ensure better guidance of the students’ move-
ment. The meeting recognized the need for Party
organizations to take a more active part in the
election campaign for the House of Councillors
and local government bodies.

The Communist Party is launching a big cam-
paign in support of the movement for the acquittal
of those sentenced under the ‘‘Matsukawa case.’
It has worked out slogans formulating the pressing
demands of the people and showing how to unite
the democratic forces. Among them are demands
for the resignation of the reactionary Kishi cabinet;
revision of the ‘‘peace treaty’’ and rejection of
the ‘‘security pact’’ imposed on Japan by the
American imperialists; the closing of military
bases; the annulment of the Japan-Chiang Kai-shek
agreement, and the establishment of diplomatic
relations with the Government of People’s China;
raising the standard of living of the workers and
peasants, struggle against the elements hindering
the unity of all progressive forces and for a
national-democratic united front and a government
of this front.

The slogans are being discussed on a nationwide
scale.

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ENR ote

7

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 79
; Exchange
. of Views
y | “Modern Forms and Methods

of Exploitation in Capitalist
Enterprises”

—.
— is
abla oe ANA ES eine cet.

: j An exchange of views between Marxists from European, American and Asian countries
is 4 took place at the end of 1958 in the Gramsci Institute in Rome.

7 Among those present were Comrades: L. Hornik and F. Margulies (Austria); M.
of Drumaux (Belgium); H. Horne (Britain); H. Schreiner and W. Mehlis (Federal Republic
e ? of Germany); M. Alicata, L. Barca, L. Gruppi, B. Manzocchi, M. Pirola, R. Spesso,
y q M. Spinella, B. Trentin, F. Ferri, A. Dina (Italy); A. Dewhurst (Canada); V. Porkkala,
k : §. Taisto (Finland); M. Dufriche (France); K. Tell nd J. O. Zenstrom (Sweden); I.
ic j Yonehara and S. Takahara (Japan). Comrades who were not granted visas: P. G.

: ; Alberdi (Argentina), G. Morris (USA) and A. Rumyantsev (USSR), submitted written
d 5 reports.

2 i The agenda contained an item ON THE THEORIES AND PRACTICE OF SO-CALLED

a : HUMAN RELATIONS UNDER CAPITALISM. In the course of the discussion, however,

at H the speakers touched upon a much wider range of problems bearing on the conditions
‘ and the struggle of the working class in the capitalist countries.

le : The Editorial Board of World Marxist Review: Problems of Peace and Socialism

wishes to thank the Gramsci Institute for having placed at its disposal the materials of
the meetings, which have been used in the following review of some of the forms of
@ exploitation and the methods used’ by the monopolies against the labor movement.
i The exchange of views demonstrated the keen interest shown by Marxists in all
4 countries in the new problems of the working class struggle. Taking into account the
¥ wishes of those present at the meeting, who pointed out that a number of questions
i had not been sufficiently dealt with either at the conference or in Marxist publications,
4 the Editorial Board invites theorists in the Communist Parties and other activists in
the labor movement to join in the further elaboration of the issues, for which purpose
it will gladly provide space in this journal.

! Why the Bourgeoisie Resorts
to New Forms of Exploitation

EVELOPMENTS in the capitalist countries
show that the monopoly capitalists are resort-

ing to new forms of exploitation, to new methods
of struggle against the working class and its orga-
nizations, and that this struggle is being waged
on political, ideological, economic and social lines.
Mario Alicata, member of the Italian Commu-
nist Party leadership and Conference chairman,
spoke of the varied forms and the complex nature
of the monopolies’ offensive, of the extent and
diversity of their activities. He pointed out that
in examining the new phenomena of capitalist
society, Marxist-Leninists should not confine them-
selves to general statements, but should make a

thorough and concrete analysis of the processes
taking place, and thus enable Party members to
wage an effective theoretical and practical fight.

The complex of monopoly capital’s practice and
bourgeois theories, known as “‘human relations,”
is now one of the most widespread forms of the
struggle waged by the monopolies against the
working class.

In the new conditions in which capitalism finds
itself, accompanied as they are by a series of
factors, among them the existence of a powerful
sOcialist camp, a socialist world market, the con-
siderable technological progress made by capital-
ist industry and the growth of the working-class

80 WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

movement, the monopolies are seeking new means
and ways of preserving their domination, of inten-
sifying exploitation. By introducing new technol-
ogy, and using new and complex methods of labor
organization, the capitalists are striving to inten-
sify the speed-up and add to their profits. To
disguise their aims and get the workers ‘inter-
ested” in higher productivity, the capitalists resort
to economic, social, “‘public’’, cultural and sports
measures, etc. In this indirect form the workers
receive a part of their wages—a sort of ‘‘pay-
ment in kind’.

Speakers said that a distinction should be made
between the “‘traditional’” paternalism (the old
capitalist policy of ‘‘the stick and the carrot,”
which means in fact the corruption and bribery
of some strata of the working class) and the cur-
rent ‘human relations.” In applying the latter
method the main emphasis is laid on the utmost
development of the worker’s “‘initiative’, on in-
fluencing all aspects of his life. They want the
worker to do a better job, to ‘“‘win’” him to the
employer’s side. As things are, the bourgeoisie
cannot hope to attain their aims (maximum profit,
undermine the workers’ class consciouness) solely
through the old paternalism and the usual ways
of exploiting the working class. They have no
option but to resort to subterfuge, to new methods
of exploitation, to the method of ‘human rela-
tions”, without in any way relinquishing their
paternalism.

In analyzing the motives underlying the ‘human
relations” — the factors associated with internal de-
velopment of the capitalist countries —a distinc-
tion should be made, in the view of M. Alicata, L.
Barca, B. Trentin and other speakers, between
the results of objective and subjective factors.
The former include the definite objective processes
now taking place in capitalist production such as
technological changes (automation etc.) and the
consequent changes in organization of production
and payment of labor with the object of obtaining
maximum profits; hence the new forms of ex-
ploitation in the enterprises. Among the subjec-
tive factors mention was made of the new tactics
adopted by the bourgeoisie in relation to the
oe people and the labor movement gener-
ally.

Speakers showed how in present-day conditions
the bourgeoisie use a variety of methods in com-
bating the labor movement, including violence,
concessions and reforms.

Speaking of the changes in bourgeois tactics,
Lenin pointed out: “If the bourgeoisie’s tactics

were always the same, or at least always uniform,
the working class would soon learn to answer
them by similar or uniform tactics. As a matter
of fact, the bourgeoisie in all countries inevitably
works out two systems of management, two

methods of upholding its interests and maintaining
its domination; and what is more, these two
methods either replace one another or are com-
bined in a variety of ways. First and foremost
is the method of violence, the method of refusing
to make any concessions to the working-class
movement, the method of clinging to all the old
and obsolete institutions, the method of obdurately
denying the need for reforms. . . . The second
method is the method of ‘liberalism’, of steps
towards political rights, towards reform, conces-
sions, and so forth.” (Works, Russ. Ed., Vol. 16,
page 320.)

The present forms of monopoly capital’s struggle
against the working-class movement in France,
West Germany, Italy, the USA, Japan and other
countries show that use is made of different com-
binations of these two methods of attack on the
working class and its organizations. Schreiner,
Yonehara, Takahara, Tell and other speakers
pointed out that the growing pressure of the
monopolies on the working class is manifested
in administrative repressions. At the same time
the ruling circles in a number of capitalist coun-
tries resort to social demagogy with the aim of
deceiving the working masses and camouflaging
the new forms of exploitation and the new methods
of bolstering capitalist rule.

Explaining this phenomenon, speakers noted that
in the eyes of the working people the power of
attraction of the socialist countries is growing.
M. Drumaux, L. Hornik, H. Schreiner and others
underlined the significance of the socialist achieve-
ments for the working-class movement in the
capitalist countries. Hornik stated that thanks to
the existence of the socialist camp many workers
no longer believed in the myth that the capitalists
were indispensable. The working class in the so-
cialist countries has proved that not only can the
proletariat do without the capitalists, it runs things
infinitely better without them.

In the capitalist countries the working masses
are becoming more and more convinced that it
is only under socialism, under the production rela-
tions of the socialist system, that genuine human
relations in society as a whole and in the enter-
prises take shape. This principle is emphasized
in A. Rumyantsev’s report. The equality of people
in socialist society is due to such important fac-
tors as the public ownership of the means of pro-
duction; the emancipation of all working people
from exploitation, unemployment and other evils
of capitalism; the equal right and duty of all to
work according to ability and to receive according
to work. Under socialism all enjoy the same right
to run the state, to education, leisure and rest, old
age pensions and sickness benefits, to enjoy the
benefits and treasures of culture.

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WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 81

The ‘‘secret’’ of the grand economic, technologi-
cal, scientific and other achievements of the social-
ist countries, which now astonish (and terrify) the
enemies of socialism, is to be sought ultimately
in the ‘new attitude towards labor, in its being
regarded as the vital concern of each and all.

One of the aims of ‘‘human relations” is that the
capitalists, in the endeavor to strengthen their
worsening positions in the economic competition
with socialism, seek for new ‘“‘stimuli’’ to ‘“‘enthuse”’
the workers and raise productivity. The monopolists
try to make it appear that under capitalism not
less, but even more, concern is displayed for the
workers than in the socialist countries.

Some exponents of “human relations” and “‘social
partnership” admit that the measures advocated
by them have been engendered by the rapid pro-
gress of the socialist world. The views expressed
in Social Partnership Instead of Class Struggle, a
book recently published in the German Federal
Republic; are typical. Its author, a West-German
capitalist by the name of Spindler, operates a
“social partnership’ policy at his works and
frankly owns that his system is designed to “‘set up
a barrier against the Bolshevik menace from the
East.”

One of the main objects of ‘“‘human relations’,
it was noted in the exchange of views, is to weaken
the organized labor movement, to paralyze the in-
fluence of the Communist parties and trade unions.

Reports by B. Trentin and R. Spesso, G. Morris,
I. Yonehara and S. Takahara, and the speeches by
A. Dewhurst, M. Spinella and others, stressed that
the employers aim at depriving the trade unions
of the functions of collective representation, at
smashing the workers’ unity, undermining trade
union and political rights in the factories.

The monopoly bourgeoisie aims—and this is one
of the major goals of ‘‘human relations’’ — at
intensified exploitation of the working class by in-
creasing relative surplus value, and greater inten-
sity of labor. This idea was the subject of reports
by A. Rumyantsev, P. Alberdi, I. Yonehara and
S. Takahara, and the speeches by M. Spinella and
other comrades.

Many spokesmen of monopoly capitalism make
no attempt to conceal that their main objective
in introducing “‘human relations’ into industry is
to get greater output per worker and maximum
profit. Henry Ford II said in an address: “If we
can solve the problem of human relations in indus-
trial production, I believe we can make as much
progress towards lower costs during the next 10

years as we made during the past quarter century
through the machinery of mass-production. .

In industrial human relations, then, we have a new
and relatively unexplored frontier. And beyond
this frontier lie opportunities perhaps greater than
any of us can imagine.”

The real aims of ‘‘human relations” are given
with equal candor by representatives of Japanese
monopoly capital, who are quoted in the reports
made by I. Yonehara and S. Takahara. Ijiro Naka-
yama, president of the Central ‘‘Labor Relations”
Committee, speaking in October 1956 at an extra-
ordinary general meeting of the Japan Federation
of Employers’ Associations, said:

“Unless the human relations method is intro-
duced in labor-capital relations, Japanese’ monopo-
lies will never be able to catch up with world
technical innovation. So far, questions on collective
intervention -by state administration or productivity
drives within enterprises have been tackled sepa-
rately, but it is now time to re-examine the whole
question with a monistic background centering
round HR as a basis of labor-capital relations.”

A number of speakers showed that “human rela-
tions” methods, if examined from the concrete
technical-industrial viewpoint, were in fact a fur-
ther development of Taylorism, Fordism and other
“sweating” systems — applicable to the new condi-
tions obtaining in capitalist industry of today in
view of mechanization and automation, electronics,
atomic power, etc. The “human relations’? system
is largely tied up with this new stage in the capital-
ist rationalization of industry.

Referring to the widespread practice of “human
relations”, ‘‘social partnership’, ‘‘paternalism’’,
and so on, ‘“‘neo-capitalist’’ theorists among the
bourgeois ideologists and reformist and revisionist
elements in the labor movement have proclaimed
the approach of a fundamentally new epoch in
labor-capitalist relations, in capitalist society as a
whole. ‘‘Marxism,”’ they declare, “‘has been dis-
proved,” and Marx’s teaching on the socio-
economic essence of capitalism has proved to be
“unfounded.”

Many Right-wing Social Democrats in effect say
the same thing, although their attitude and tactics
on ‘“‘human relations’ in the different countries
have specific features.

Do the monopolists’ activities, concealed though
they are behind the ‘‘human relations” smoke-
screen, change the nature of capitalism, its essence
as a system of exploitation? To this the speakers
gave an unequivocal reply.

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

‘‘Human Relations” in Practice

HE so-called human relations system which

has been introduced into a number of modern
capitalist enterprises, introduced to encourage the
employer activities: organizational, psychological,
economic, ‘‘social” and others.

What are the most important aspects of these
capitalist activities?

Changes in the System of Wage Payment

One of the pillars of the “human relations’’
method is the new form of remuneration in
capitalist enterprises, introduced to encourage the
“nitiative’’ of the workers and secure higher
productivity. The changes in industrial organiza-
tion facilitate the use of these new wage sys-
tems.

As a rule wages now consist of two parts: the
fixed wage and the variable part (which includes
bonuses). The first part, in a number of coun-
tries, is now often less than half the wage. Thus
the workers depend largely on bonuses.

In France, for instance, as M. Dufriche pointed
out, there are now three main categories of
bonuses:

1) Individual bonus. This is fixed by the em-
ployer with a view, apart from other things, to
increasing the number of grades of workers and
intensifying competition among them. This makes
it more difficult for all the workers of a shop or
factory to make joint demands.

2) Collective bonus. This is designed as an in-
centive to greater productivity by groups of work-
ers and to ensure their ‘‘class collaboration’’ within
the factory. A group risks losing its bonus unless
every worker turns out the maximum.

3) Differential bonus. This is paid regularly either
monthly, quarterly or half-yearly: employers hope
by these means to prevent their workers from
going on strike.

M. Pirola told the meeting that changes were
being made in the wage system of the Fiat Works
in Italy, which employs 60,000 persons. There was
a tendency to increase that part of the wage which
was fixed by the management and to reduce the
rates envisaged in the national agreement. A con-
siderable part of the wage paid to the Fiat workers
is fixed unilaterally by the board of directors.

The big capitalists are trying to widen the split
ir the workers’ ranks by undermining the unified
wage scales, by the policy of differential wages, of
increasing the number of grades based on skills
and breaking down the workers into small groups.
An agreement signed in Federal Germany between

the employers and the union embracing textile
and clothing workers envisages 21 wage categories.
At the SIMCA works in France there are 101
categories. The SOMUA iron and steel works has
four basic wage rates for 13 skilled workers of
the first grade and seven for 32 skilled workers
of the second category. For young workers, women
and immigrants the rates are different again. In
this way grounds for grievances between ihe
working people are created and their ranks divided.

’

“Job evaluation,” a new system of determining
wages, is becoming increasingly widespread in
the big capitalist countries. It was first introduced
in the USA, whence it spread to other capitalist
countries. Under this system, the machine is first
examined and its speed ascertained; the worker
is also tested to see whether he can operate the
machine efficiently; he undergoes a series of tests
among which are the following: his power of en-
durance, rapidity of movement, memory, suscep-
tibility to the influence of his surroundings, will
power, thoroughness, sense of responsibility, etc.
In some countries “loyalty to the firm’ is also
a most important factor. Points are given on each
count.

What is the purpose of this wage system? Wages
are determined arbitrarily by the management. The
number of grades is substantially increased, there-
by facilitating division among the working people.
It becomes more difficult to sign collective agree-
ments by industries, and trade union activities are
disrupted. There is a show of a “‘scientific’’ ap-
proach to wage rates; illusions are sown among
the working people as to the employer’s ‘‘human’”’
and “‘fair” attitude.

In his report H. Schreiner cited examples of this
in the iron and steel industry of West Germany.
In 1956, 220,000 out of 260,000 workers in this in-
dustry came under the “‘job evaluation” system.
The application of a highly differentiated “‘system
of points” ended in the old wage system being
replaced by a whole series of wage rates. At the
Huckingen Works (Mannesmann firm) there are
1,200 differently paid jobs for 5,000 workers! This
system induces the man on the job to work more
quickly and to do more, and hinders collective
action for a wage increase.

As many speakers noted, these “incentives,” in
the guise and in the name of “‘human relations,”
have, in the USA, the German Federal Republic,
France, Italy, Japan, and other capitalist coun-
tries, led to intensified exploitation of the working
class, greater intensity of labor and—its inevit-
able consequence—a higher accident rate.

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WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 83

New Functions of Intermediate Personnel
at Enterprises

This “‘organizational’’ aspect of ‘‘human rela-
tions’”’ is most widespread. With the technological
advance of capitalist industry definite changes are
taking place in the organization of production and in
the internal structure of the enterprises. This means
that the functions of charge-hands, foremen and
shop superintendents, etc., are changing. In their
capacity as technical experts these people, because
of the growing centralization of production manage-
ment, are now less important as supervisors of
production processes; and their functions are be-
coming less technical and increasingly discipli-
nary and political. In addition to their functions
in checking up on production fulfilment, the em-
ployer tries to use the intermediate personnel as
spies.

Their new functions and their training are an
important aspect of “human relations.’”’ A special
method of training ‘‘chiefs,” known as ‘“TWI’—
“Training Within Industry”—has been elaborated
in the USA. About three million underwent this
training in the U.S. during the Second World War.
This method subsequently spread to Britain and
other West-European countries. Various categories
of “‘chiefs’”’ and some skilled workers attend the
numerous courses for ‘‘training industrial person-
nel.”

The Montecatini and Pirelli enterprises (Italy)
were cited by M. Pirola in demonstrating what
the new functions meant and their effect. At these
works the management empowers the intermediate
heads to decide such matters as individual allow-
ances, loans to those in need of them and the
awarding of bonuses to those who, in their opinion,
merit them. Hence these chiefs now perform what
in fact are functions of a political and not tech-
nical nature. They are in a position to exert moral
and material pressure on workers. In this way the
capitalists wish to restrict and change the activi-
ties of the workers’ organizations (internal com-
missions and trade unions); to get the worker
to solve his problems individually and not collec-
tively, and to divide the workers.

In the view of Trentin, Spesso, Spinella and
others, training the intermediate personnel in in-
dustry to master these new functions is the main
and particularly dangerous aspect of ‘“‘human rela-
tions.”

“Contacts’’ Between Capitalists and Workers

Among these are: shop meetings, ‘‘managerial
councils,” receptacles for rationalization proposals,
publications put out by management, and other
measures which are nothing but a travesty of what
has been accomplished in the socialist countries.

H. Horne (Britain), M. Pirola and A. Dina
(Italy), K. Tell (Sweden), M. Duriche (France),
F. Margulies (Austria), I. Yonehara, S. Takahara
(Japan) and others described some of these activ-
ities.

At the Vauxhall Motor Works in Bedfordshire
(Britain), a subsidiary of General Motors, so-called
“Joint Consultation” machinery has been set up,
and a ‘Management Advisory Committee’’ estab-
lished consisting of management and workers’ rep-
resentatives. It has several sub-committees: Sug-
gestions, Personnel and Absentee, etc. The Com-
mittee meets monthly and is advisory only.

Various types of factory organizations have been
established at the Olivetti factory in Ivrea (Italy)
which manufactures typewriters and calculating
machines and has some 6,000 workers. Through
them the employer exerts influence on all aspects
of the worker’s life. Among these organizations are
the ‘factory commune” (its aim is to replace the
trade unions and to weaken their influence), and
“works management councils” whose duties, in
fact, are limited to philanthropic measures.

Under the slogan of “industrial democracy’’ so-
called factory’ commissions have been established
in many factories in Sweden with the aim of pro-
moting ‘“‘constant collaboration’? between owners
and workers with the object of obtaining the best
production results. These commissions are of a
purely advisory nature and in no way affect the
one-man power of the employer who can, if he
chooses, ignore any of the commission’s decisions.

One of the most widespread ways of establish-
ing “human relations” in France is through factory
papers published by the employers. The purpose of
these papers can be seen from an article written
by the owner of the big Les Forges de Chatillon
Commentry iron and steel works in one of the
works’ bulletins. ‘““‘The weakness of any large fac-
tory,” the capitalist wrote, “is the inability to
maintain real human contact between all its work-
ers .. . Hence the main function of this paper is
to establish contact . . . And to attain this goal
the paper must try to bring together the people
of one and the same plant spiritually and cordially,
for subordination in a modern plant divides them.”

In some plants in Austria papers published by
the owners are handed out to the workers free of
charge. They are well got up and well illustrated.
Frequently the factory owner is photographed with
a worker’s baby in his arms, or dancing with
the office-cleaner at the plant’s social evening. The
object of these papers is to popularize the idea of
“social partnership” and improve the “‘situation in
the factories.”

In Japan employers also make a practice of
keeping ‘‘contact” with the workers. For instance,
foremen memorize the names of all the workers
in the shop and speak to each of them at least

84 WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

once a day. Periodically, at the New Year, for
instance, owners of enterprises deign to look in
at the workers’ homes or send their children pres-
ents on birthdays or when they start school. At-
tractive bulletins are published from time to time
at the majority of the bigger factories for dis-
tribution among the workers and their families.
Attempts are made to “‘condition’’ the workers on
a pseudo-scientific basis, with reference to figures
and statistical calculations. Thus one employer
distributed calendars among his workers which
gave daily menus with the corresponding number
of calories: These menus were worked out in a
manner designed to make the workers believe that
their low wages sufficed for normal nutrition.

“Public Relations’’ Measures for Workers and
Their Families

These in the main are arrangements made by
the management of capitalist enterprises for their
workers’ “‘leisure hours,” and include the setting
up of cultural and sports societies, groups, etc.

The owner of the Olivetti factory boasts about
his ‘‘moral” support to workers in carrying through
cultural, sports and other measures.’

In Argentina and other Latin American countries,
stated Alberdi, employers have established a net-
work of clubs in order to deflect the workers from
their class organizations and from taking part in
the class struggle.

In Japan the families of workers are invited
to the enterprise, to take part in religious cere-
monies, to attend socials, dances, “‘play days’ and
other entertainments.

One of the principal aims of these activities is
to inculcate in the workers an indifference to
politics, deaden their class consciousness, to get
them and their families to become reconciled to
exploitation and the capitalist system.

The Employer’s ‘‘Social’’ Activity

These include the granting of privileges to some
categories of workers, pensions, housing, medical
services, loans, works canteens, kindergartens, etc.
This “‘social’’ activity is by no means evidence of
the ‘“‘magnanimity” or ‘“‘disinterestedness’”’ of the
capitalists. They are in fact financed by money
that should go to the workers.

Under capitalism wages lag behind the value
of labor-power, do not keep pace with the growing

needs of the workers and society in general. Hence
one of the main demands of the proletariat is
higher wages. The “‘social aid’’ rendered by the
capitalists—aid given in the demagogic guise of
‘human relations’’—is, in fact, part of the value of
labor-power, an element of the worker’s wages. It
should be borne in mind, however, that this part,
firstly, is not paid out to all workers; the capitalist
decides this as he sees fit. Secondly, he can at
any time decline to pay paternalist allowances.
And he often refuses to do so either on economic
grounds, particularly during slumps, or for political
reasons (as a reprisal against this or that section
of the workers). Thirdly, it should be borne in mind
that the employer’s so-called social expenditure is,
as a rule, tax-exempt.

It is not surprising, therefore, that many em-
ployers regard this expenditure as being every bit
as vital as capital investment. In their view they
will be repaid with interest, for, on the one hand,
they raise productivity and intensity of exploitation
and so add to profits and, on the other, they can,
in some measure, blunt the more acute forms of
the proletariat’s class struggle.

A worker standing up for his rights at the Fiat
Works runs the risk of being dismissed, B. Trentin
told the conference. He not only faces unemploy-
ment and the loss of wages for a time, but, in the
event of being taken on again, would most certainly
be paid at a lower rate on the grounds that he had
lost some of his skill in the meantime. The chances
are that he would not only lose his wages, but also
the apartment rented from the employer at a
lower rent and other benefits for which he qualifies
as an employee of the given factory.

The monopolists use pension funds for their own
ends. In the USA, as G. Morris pointed out in his
report, the workers after long struggle secured the
provision of “‘welfare funds.’’ Capitalists are trying
to use these funds in their own interests. On the
one hand, with the help of reactionary trade union
bosses, they are trying to realize employer-worker
“collaboration” in administering the funds and, on
the other, are taking advantage of the worker’s
fear of losing his pension to render him docile and
turn him against strikes. In many plants a worker
has to have from 25 to 30 years’ continuous
conscientious work with the firm to qualify for a
pension at 65.

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WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 85

Working-Class Resistance

HE spread of the “human relations” system

and other new forms of exploitation, it was
noted, poses new problems before the working
class and its organizations. It is highly important
for the proletarian parties and trade unions to
work out a correct approach to the solution of
the new tasks at enterprise level and on a national
scale. The conference summed up the initial experi-
ence accumulated in this sphere although, as M.
Alicata pointed out in his final speech, the matter
had not been sufficiently dealt with during the
exchange of views and could well form the subject
of a future discussion.

The conference noted the negative attitude of
the working people and their political and trade
union organizations that stand foursquare on the
platform of class struggle, to the “‘human relations”
system. In Italy, for instance, the General Con-
federation of Labor stressed in one of its documents
that ‘‘to defend the working people’s rights success-
fully, special attention should be paid to the em-
ployers’ program of action known as ‘human rela-
tions,’ aimed at using the new criteria, the psy-
chological and professional molding of people, at
engendering among the masses, in the social en-
vironment, the family, and every individual, a way
of thinking that would imply acceptance of the
forms of exploitation linked with monopoly capital-
ism. The object of this is to reconcile the worker
to the need for speed-up, and make him forget
that the capitalist mode of production is based on
exploitation, to foster in him the belief that the
employer has to work too, and that conditions can
be created in industry for translating into life the
aspirations of both employer and employed.” The
proletarian organizations of France, West Germany,
Austria, Japan, the Latin American countries and
other capitalist nations have also adopted a nega-
tive attitude to the new forms of exploitation.

Delegates spoke about the intensified economic
and political struggle waged by the working class,
about the big strikes and other actions which
show that the bourgeoisie’s new plans for “class
conciliation” are meeting with opposition from the
workers.

With regard to the work of the Communists and
active trade unionists in the factories, representa-
tives of the Communist parties of Germany, Italy,
Britain, Austria and other countries voiced the
opinion that different tactics should be applied,
depending on the moves of the owners.

As concerns the ‘‘amenities’’ (cheaper canteens,
medical treatment, housing, sports, etc.) these are
a component, an essential part of the worker’s
wage. In view of the fact that the management
grants these “amenities” out of purely political

considerations, the workers and their organizations
should take measures strictly to supervise these
social activities, to see to it that no discrimination
is permitted in administering the ‘‘benefits,”’ that
all workers qualify for them and that workers take
part in their distribution.

As concerns other aspects of the employers’ activ-
ities (particularly “‘organizational,’’ disciplinary,
““psychological,”’ etc.), aimed at blunting the class
consciousness of the workers and subordinating
them to bourgeois domination, the working people
and their organizations should fight hard against
any measures involving intensified exploitation.

Communists and militant trade unions should
block all efforts to strengthen capitalist rule at
factory and national levels.

Speakers stressed the need to counter the em-
ployers’ drive to introduce new ‘‘job evaluation”
systems. It is the duty of the Communists and
progressive trade union leaders to firmly oppose
proposals of this kind, to prepare themselves for
conflicts and disputes with the owners.

H. Schreiner, M. Pirola, F. Margulies and others
spoke about factory publications. The employers
have stepped up their activity in this respect,

Schreiner said, and it was up to ‘the. Communists

to get out their own factory papers and participate
actively in publishing trade union papers.

In Italy the Communists and the other demo-
cratic forces in the labor movement are publishing
their own factory and shop papers or bulletins.
This also applies to offices with large numbers
of employees.

Margulies told the conference about the experi-
ence of the Austrian labor movement in this field.
The employers’ papers, he said, are read in fac-
tories where we are not doing any work, in other
words, where we have no influence. He cited the
case of the Salzburg Aluminum Association’s fac-
tories in Lend to show that communist agitation
should and could be improved and made more ef-
fective than the employers’ propaganda machine.
For the past seven years these works had been
putting out a well got-up management paper which
had done its best to embellish the ‘‘analytical
job evaluation’? system. But the agitation carried
on by the Communists resulted in the workers
twice rejecting. this system by a majority. News-
papers of the trade union solidarity group—i.e.,
newspapers published ‘under Communist guidance
—are now sold in 150 Austrian factories. The entire
edition are sold out (they cover 15 to 20 per cent
of the workers). Their influence is much greater
than that of the employers’ papers. ‘

The conference also raised problems: concérned
with the change in the composition “and: skills: of

86

the workers in modern capitalist enterprises. The
report made by Spesso and Trentin, which dealt
with these questions, noted that an absolute and
relative numerical increase of office workers in
industry was typical of Italy. A certain ‘“‘leveling
of skills” was also taking place. This is the outcome
of reducing the number of both highly-skilled and
un-skilled workers in the factories and, as a con-
sequence, the greater role played by workers with
medium skills. This is a general tendency, the
operation of which, it goes without saying, does not
preclude one or another counter-tendency (as, for
instance, the emergence of highly-skilled, but as yet
relatively small number of workers of new trades,
engaged in supervising and maintaining automatic
and semi-automatic equipment). These and other
new processes now taking place in capitalist enter-
prises call for further study by Marxists. But, as
some speakers noted, these processes should be
taken into consideration now so that the urgent
tasks facing the labor movement can be solved in
the right way (the struggle for unity of action by
workers of all skills and trades, work among office
employees, etc.).

However, the new problem confronting the labor
movement cannot be solved through economic
struggle alone. This idea was emphasized by Alicata,
Barca, Yonehara, Schreiner and others. Hence the
proletariat’s political struggle actually acquires ex-
ceptional importance, for one of the aims of the
“human relations” drive is to focus the workers’
attention on issues that concern only their particular
factory, to divert them from home and foreign
politics. This state of affairs should be combated.

The concrete forms and results of the workers’
fight against “human relations” in this or that
country depend, in a certain measure on such
factors as the general level of the proletarian class
struggle, the influence exerted by the working-class
revolutionary organizations (the Communist parties,
Left trade unions), and the role and influence exert-
ed by the Social-Democratic and Clerical parties,
the reformist trade union organizations, etc.

In this connection the speakers drew attention to
the peculiarities of the labor movement in the
different countries.

Some of the specific features of the labor move-
ment in Italy, noted Alicata and others, were deter-
mined by the fact that the Italian working class
had not only a mass Communist Party, but also
a strong Socialist Party which differed from
the Social-Democratic parties of the usual type.
There were powerful trade unions in Italy and
this fact created better conditions for the working
people’s fight against the so-called human rela-
tions.

Conditions are different in, say, the United States
of America where many of the trade union leaders
hold that the workers should have an ideology

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

more or less similar to that of the bourgeoisie,
that not class consciousness but ‘‘job consciousness”
should be developed. This does not mean, of course,
as G. Morris pointed out, that the American work-
ing class is not militant. It has shown a high
degree of militancy in numerous strikes, but its
struggle is so far limited mainly to economic
objectives, with the result that the monopolies and
trade union bosses can practice ‘class collabora-
tion” on a wider scale in the USA than elsewhere.

To some extent the typical features of the U.S.
labor movement also apply to the working-class
movement in Canada, although the Canadian work-
ers are faced with a number of specific problems.
A. Dewhurst spoke of the growing dissatisfaction
in the country over the dominance of U.S. monopoly
capital, the difference in the position of workers
of French and British origin, the role of immi-
gration, the changed political character of the
immigration since the Second World War, certain
distinguishing features of the Canadian trade unions,
etc. He noted the role played in Canada and the
USA by the growth of debt among the working
people. The bourgeoisie utilize this to prevent the
workers from becoming class conscious.

Monopoly capital in West Germany, stressed H.
Schreiner, as was the case in a number of other
West-European countries, was at present largely
orientating on political clericalism in combating
the working class movement. In post-war West
Germany, after Hitler had been defeated and Nazi
ideology discredited, German imperialism held Ca-
tholicism and its social teaching to be the most
suitable ideological weapon for maintaining its
domination. Hence the wide application in West Ger-
many of “‘social par:nership’’ and other measures
conducted in the spirit of Catholic social doctrine
(or, to be more precise, concealed, with its aid),
and this confronts the working-class movement
with special problems.

In the Latin-American countries the dominant
role in imposing “‘new forms” of worker-employer
relations is played by the U.S. government and
monopolies. The first Latin-American ‘‘seminar for
raising productivity,’ conducted under the auspices
of the U.S. State Department through its so-called
International Corporation Administration, took place
in Mexico at the end of 1955. It studied among
other subjects the working of ‘‘human relations”’
in Latin-American enterprises, ‘‘psycho-technical’’
testing of workers, and so forth.

P. Alberdi showed from the example of Argentina
how these methods are applied. Peronist union
leaders were sent to the USA to study the “‘new
deal’ in employer-worker relations. These methods
became particularly widespread in the national en-
terprises which passed over to the financial control
of North American concerns. Due regard should be
paid, stressed Alberdi, to the part played by the

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WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 87

ideology and practical experience of Peronism in
arresting the growth of an independent labor move-

ment. Peron and his associates preached the ‘‘hu-

manization of capital,” ‘‘justicialism” (regime of
justice), ‘‘non-exploiting capitalism’ and so on,
and, relying on powerful anarchist and syndicalist
traditions, diverted the workers from politics. But
they were not very successful. The Argentine
Communists organized a movement for independent
and democratic trade unions, urging the workers
to take up the struggle over the heads of those
union leaders who sided with the employers. This
was done without forming new unions and no split
was caused in the labor movement. The Com-
munists called upon the workers to conduct a poli-
tical struggle against the coups d’etat organized by
reactionary groupings in the army and navy. The
Party’s tactics are meeting with success. The work-
ers, Peronists and non-Peronists, are holding big
strikes in which millions of people are taking part.

Many speakers emphasized that a successful po-
litical and economic struggle by the proletariat,
and successful opposition to the “human relations”
method and the other forms of monopoly capital
offensive, called for the utmost unity of action by
the workers in the trade unions and other fields.

The conference dwelt in detail on certain aspects
of the ideological work of the Marxist-Leninist par-
ties. Emphasis was laid on the importance of giving
a timely rebuff to the attempts at substantiating
“theoretically” the ‘human relations” method.
Speakers pointed to the need for a profound study
and analysis of the new social phenomena and
processes, including the latest forms of capitalist
exploitation, and the modern methods used by the
monopolies in their economic, political and ideologi-
cal offensive against the working class.

Marxist-Leninists, it was pointed out, should pay
due regard to all the new phenomena in life.
Alicata (Italy), stressed that the working class in
the developed capitalist countries faced two dan-
gers. The first was revisionism in the ranks of the
labor movement. There was, however, another
danger. This was that some members of the work-
ing class movement did not always see the new
in good time, did not always link up their activities
at the right time with the class struggle, with the
tasks advanced by the new developments. Combat-
ing revisionism, the main danger, noted Alicata,
should not hinder our search for closer contacts
with life, our study of the new forms in which
exploitation and the rule of capital manifest them-
selves. I. Yonehara, member of the Secretariat of
the Communist Party of Japan, stated that on the
“human relations’ question the most important
thing at present was to explain the fundamentals
of Marxism-Leninism, not as some kind of dogma,
but as a teaching, closely linked with life.

An important part of the ideological work of the
Marxist-Leninist parties is, on the one hand, to ex-
pose the myth of the different forms of “industrial
democracy” under capitalism and, on the other,
to refute the falsehoods in relation to socialist,
genuinely human, democracy. These points were
posed in A. M. Rumayntsev’s report.

Bourgeois and reformist ideologists, distorting
reality, are trying to make things appear as if the
socialist enterprises have the same social prob-
lems as capitalist enterprises. Thus the French
sociologist George Friedmann, Chairman of the
International Sociological Association, affirms in his
book Whither Human Labor? that “. . . the
problem of labor humanization has not been solved
in Soviet society.”” Friedmann assures his readers
that labor “‘in the factories of Milan, Chicago, St.
Etienne or Sverdlovsk’’ is essentially the same,
and as he expresses it, yields similar ‘‘bio-psycho-
logical resulis.’’

But what can the capitalist system, founded upon
the exploitation of man by man, have in common
with socialist society, where the means of pro-
duction belong to the people, where the people
work for themselves? It is only on the basis of
public ownership of the means of production, when
exploitation of man by man has been ended,
that real democracy is possible and, therefore,
genuine humanization of labor.

Even if we approach the problem of humanizz-
tion of labor in the narrower sense (that is, in
the sense of the extent to which people engaged
in manual labor can develop their mental facul-
ties and satisfy their spiritual needs both at work
and in leisure time) the facts show that only in
socialist society is this problem being successfully
solved. Already now, with the use of increasingly
perfected technology at socialist enterprises, the
worker is able to spend a growing part of his
working day in mental labor. About 60 per cent
of the workday of steel-makers in the Soviet
Union, for instance, is now allotted to mental
labor (calculations, supervising production, calcu-
lating the efficiency of equipment), the remainder
to manual labor (accomplishing arduous operations,
technology of production and so on).

The genuine humanization of labor in the social-
ist countries is revealed most clearly in the rising
cultural level of the working class. Many Soviet
enterprises, among them the Uralmashzavod, Ural-
vagonzavod and Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Works,
have become regular training centers where work-
ers improve their skills and receive a secondary
general or technical education, and also higher
education, after working hours. Between 1953-1958
the Uralmashzavod trained 6,000 new workers;
2,500 workers studied after working hours and
completed secondary school. Half the workers of
the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Works study after

88

the day’s work in general or technical schools and
classes.. And could the Soviet worker spend so
much of his time and energy after work in im-
proving his:education if he came home exhausted
physically: and mentally?

The cultural and technological advance registered
by the Soviet working people, A. Rumyantsev
stressed, was of fundamental importance in the
light of the tasks for the gradual elimination of
the distinctions between manual and mental labor.
Here it will’ not be amiss to recall what Marx
said about the content of the education of the
working class.

“By education,” wrote Marx, “we understand
three things:

Firstly—mental training

Secondly—physical training.. . .

Thirdly—technical training, which will give the
pupil knowledge of the basic principles of all pro-
duction processes . . .

“A combination of paid productive labor, mental
training, physical exercise and polytechnical train-
ing raises the working class considerably above the
level of the higher and middle classes.”’ (Karl Marx
and Frederick Engels, Works, Russ. Ed., Vol.
XIII, part 1, p. 199.)

Everything is being done in the USSR to solve
this task. Special attention is paid to improving
the education of the growing generation, and the
school reform now being elaborated in the USSR

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

is called upon to play a big ‘part in this. Its aim
is to find the best ways of combining education
with productive labor, of bringing the school closer
to life. The aim is to equip youth for work in
the best possible way, to secure a higher general
educational and technical standard for those who
will replenish the ranks of the working class. The
measures now being implemented for the. transi-
tion to a shorter working day clear the way for
raising the standard of general education and
the cultural level of the working people. In a few
years’ time the Soviet Union will have the shortest
working ‘day in the world and the shortest work-
ing week. The shorter working week will, moreover,
be accompanied by higher real wages.

A. Rumyantsev emphasized the “growing oppor-
tunities in the USSR and in the other socialist
countries for man’s all-round, harmonious devel-
opment. He touched upon other points which show-
ed that only in socialist society is there real
humanization of labor and genuinely human rela-
tions.

* BS %

The conference participants noted that joint dis-
cussions among Marxists are well worth while
and play an important part in studying the prob-
lems confronting the labor movement. The wish
was expressed that conferences and exchanges of
opinion on an international scale should be held
more frequently.

D.T.

ae Ce Se eT

4
5

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 89

Letters and Notes |

Never Again!

Letter from Japan

O nation can guarantee its security through

stockpiling nuclear weapons. This applies
equally to the countries manufacturing these
weapons and those receiving them from other
powers. In the latter case the country is turned
into an atomic base: nuclear missile sites are
built on its territory, its armed forces are equipped
with nuclear weapons, pilots undergo special
training and its air and naval bases are placed
at the disposal of foreign armed forces.

At present we see this kind of nuclearization
in West Germany and Japan. The peoples must
expose the hypocrisy and trickery of Chancellor
Adenauer and Prime Minister Kishi who in words
are for the suspension of nuclear tests, but in
practice are ready to accept nuclear arms “‘for
the sake of self-defense.”

In this connection one cannot pass over the
Swiss Government’s statement to the effect that
Switzerland’s neutrality, proclaimed in 1813, can
be preserved only by nuclearizing its armed
forces. Is this view correct? Can peace and neut-
rality be preserved by such means? No, this is
simply imitation of ‘‘the policy of strength,” and
blindness to the danger arising from the present
world situation—a situation fraught with terrible
consequences for mankind.

Any limited atomic war can develop now into
an all-out atomic war. It is quite obvious therefore,
that neutrality cannot be preserved by nuclear-
ization. The ‘“‘neutrality’”’ of the 19th century en-
abled a neutral country to keep out of war and
brought her big profits from it. The ‘‘neutrality”
of the atomic age means that such a country must
side with peace and international co-operation,
and work to avert atomic war and nuclear arma-
ment whatever shape they may take.

The reason why I have mentioned the statement
ot the Swiss Government is that the Japanese
militarists refer to Switzerland as an example.
They at once seized on the Swiss statement as a
convenient pretext to justify their dangerous stand.
As a result, the militarists suggest that Japan
should be armed openly in defiance of its Consti-
tution, which renounces remilitarization and war
and makes neutrality possible. Only neutrality
and an independent policy of peace can ensure
real independence and security for Japan.

The Swiss nuclearization theory seeks to justify
abandonment of neutrality. But we firmly believe
that our European friends — peace supporters,
including the Swiss—will succeed in their fight
against nuclear armament.

As for nuclearization of Japan, some major
factors should be singled out.

Japan was the first country to suffer from atom
bombing and, further, the first to suffer from the
“ash of death,” which originated from the thermo-
nuclear weapon tests in the Pacific. Now she
herself is engaged in stockpiling this weapon. This
is being done in the interests of the United States.
U.S. atomic weapons are brought not only into
U.S.-occupied Okinawa, South Korea and Taiwan,
but into Japan proper.

Japan is allocated the role of an IRBM launching
base against China. The United States controls
the Misawa Base in the Aomori Prefecture, John-
son Base in the Saitama Prefecture, Itazuke Base
in the Fukuoka Prefecture, Tachikawa and Yokota
bases near Tokyo, the last two being logistic and
transportation bases for the U.S. Strategic Air
Command stationed in Guam as well as in Japan.

One can visualize how terrible it would be if
the atomic bases in the vicinity of Tokyo—a city

‘with a population of over 8,000,000—were subjected

to atomic retaliation in the event of war. The
people of Japan are deeply concerned about this.

Okinawa is of special importance. Some: of the
islands of this group have been turned into mam-
moth air bases designed for heavy jet bombers
carrying atomic loads.

F-86 and F-86-1 jet fighter-bombers, capable of
carrying A-bombs, have already been sent to Japan,
while planes of the F1l-F type are manufactured
in the country. Japanese pilots are undergoing
special A-bomb training. The so-called Self-Defense
Board has recently announced that its forces will
be equipped with rocket weapons. In addition to
the missiles imported from the USA, Japan’s
monopoly armament manufacturers are making
their own missiles. They are produced not only
for the use by the ‘“‘self-defense forces’’ but also
for shipment to Taiwan, South Korea and some
South-East Asian countries.

Such being the situation, the Japanese people
emphatically demand not only immediate and un-

90

conditional suspension of nuclear weapon tests
but also prohibition of the manufacture of these
weapons. They insist that these two problems should
be regarded as the urgent issues of the times.
That is why people in all walks of life took part
in the month of joint action for the prohibition
of nuclear weapons and cessation of tests.* Meet-
ings and rallies held in hundreds of towns and
villages sent delegates to the bigger centers, whence
they started a two-week march to Tokyo.

Resolutions against nuclear armament have been
adopted by the local government bodies and public
organizations. They will constitute the basis ior
a general resolution to be submitted to Parliament.
Some prefectures, dozens of towns and many trade
unions have already passed resolutions denouncing
the decision to equip the “self-defense forces”
with nuclear weapons. A 3,000-strong meeting in
Iwakuni unanimously demanded that the Govern-
ment should renounce nuclear weapons and close
the U.S. base in the town. For three hours after
the meeting all the people demonstrated with ban-
ners and posters in the vicinity of the base.

Similar meetings were held near the U.S. bases
in other places.

The people are also insisting that the bases
must not be used by the U.S. armed forces for
war against China. They accuse the Kishi Govern-
ment of collaborating with the USA in pursuing a
criminal war policy and are calling for its resig-
nation.

That is why the movement for the closing of
U.S. atomic bases is linked not only with that
against nuclear weapons; it aims, in addition, at
restoring Japan’s independence and sovereignty.
Proof of this is the popular struggle for renuncia-

*In response to the appeal of the Fourth World Conference
against A- and H-Bombs and for Disarmament held in
Tokyo last August, many countries held, between October 15
and November 15, a month of joint action for the prohibition
of nuclear weapons and an end to the tests. By a decision
of the National Council for the Prohibition of Atomic and
Hydrogen Weapons, the month was held in Japan in October.

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

tion of the American-Japanese ‘‘Security Treaty’’,
concluded during the Korean war and spear-
headed against the alleged enemy—People’s China
and the Korean People’s Democratic Republic.
Like the Japan-Chiang Kai-shek “‘treaty,” it is
aimed at creating ‘‘two Chinas,”’ with the Chinese
People’s Reoublic being looked upon as a hostile
nation.

And since the people’s peace movement aims
at closing the American military bases and attain-
ing renunciation of the ‘Security Treaty,” it is
directed against the treaty with Chiang Kai-shek
and for restoration of relations with People’s China.

The Kishi Government is supporting the U.S.
war gambles in the Taiwan Strait and is trying
to revise the “Security Treaty” in order to make
it even more aggressive. It wants to militarize
the country in order to deprive the working class
and other sections of the people of their democratic
rights by force of arms. Therefore the people’s
will for peace and independence is not fortuitous,
the anti-nuclear action is also aimed at defending
democracy and against reviving militarism, against
imperialism.

In the course of the month of joint action the
peace fighters achieved considerable success. This
truly national movement has united all progressive
forces and democratic mass organizations. They
are guided in their struggle by a broad program
of joint action, for only the solidarity of the people
as a whole can thwart the lunatic designs of the
imperialists and those who, acting on their orders,
are instigating war.

The movement for ending the nuclear weapon
tests must be develonved into a movement for
unconditional prohibition of this weapon and des-
truction of the stockniles, and for atom-free zones.
This movement is inseparable from the common
struggle against the atomic arms race.

Yoshitaro HIRANO,
Secretary-General of the Japan
Peace Committee

An Organ of Militant Marxists in France

HE appearance of the 100th issue of La Nou-

A velle Critique* in November 1958 coincided
with its tenth anniversary.

Founded on the initiative of Maurice Thorez,
La Nouvelle Critique has become a medium for
disseminating Marxist ideology among intellectuals
and primarily among the youth. This organ of
militant Marxism fulfils an important and respon-
sible role in the battle of ideas in France. Its

*Paris journal devoted to politics and culture.

purpose is to win the intellectuals to the side of
the working class and thus strengthen its alliance
with the middle strata. “‘. . . We present ourselves
to the world not as doctrinaires with a ready-made
principle: here is truth, bow down to it . . . There
is therefore nothing to prevent us from linking
our criticism with a criticism of politics, with a
definite party stand in politics and, therefore,
from linking and identifying our criticism with
real struggles.” Taking as its motto these words
of Marx, written in connection with the founding

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oF healt at dab acs BN

Sa Satna Sabon

ibid aS RS RM ie sa Siol

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 91

of the German-French Year Books in 1843, the
journal nursues the aim of wresting the intellec-

tuals from the influence of bourgeois ideology,

helping them critically to assess the realities of
capitalism, convincing them of the correctness of
the Marxist outlook.

This aim determines the basic trend of the jour-
nal which systematically exposes bourgeois ideo-
logy and propagates Marxism-Leninism, upholds
the progressive traditions and the cultural heritage
of the people, responds in good time to major
international events and explains the burning social
problems of the country. It devotes space also to
life in the socialist countries, to science, literature
and art.

Guided by the Leninist principle of partisanship,
La Nouvelle Critique imparts to the intellectuals
the party’s class approach to all the phenomena
of social life: politics, science, culture. Linked with
this are essays and polemics against ideological
opponents, exchanges of opinion on current cul-
tural problems, conferences, etc. In this way it
maintains constant contact with its readers. It
attracts to Marxism scientists, artists, writers
and students, who have renounced the idealist
outlook; it helps the intellectuals to acquire a
deeper understanding of the social conditions of
their work, brings them closer to the people and
draws them into the struggle for peace, democracy
and socialism.

The battle of ideas in postwar France has been
of an extremely sharp character and has had a
profound impact on the political life of the coun-
try. Ever since 1945 the French monopoly bourgeoi-
sie, seriously weakened as a result of the war
and alarmed by the growth of Communist influence,
have sought salvation in a ‘‘strong man’’ dictator-
ship. Even after the unsuccessful experiment with
de Gaulle’s RPF in 1947-1953, they still clung to
their cherished hope. The preaching of skepticism,
irrationalism and overt mysticism, which became
pronounced in France in the ’fifties, was designed
to pave the way ideologically, this time more
thoroughly, for the advent to power of a ‘“‘strong
man.”

In this connection the struggle waged by La
Nouvelle Critique against the two ideological trends
that cleared the way for de Gaulle — the torrent
of skepticism and the preaching of ‘‘voluntarism’’
—acquired a topical significance.

In a series of articles in 1958 it rebutted the
attempts made by reactionary ideologists to shake
the faith of the people in social justice, democracy
and progress.

Exposing the “strong man’ myth André Gissel-
brecht in an article entitled ‘“‘The General and
Faust’”’ (No. 98) writes that the Walpurgis night of
Gaullism was prepared by reaction, in an attempt

to make the masses believe blindly that de Gaulle
could, as if by magic, pacify Algeria, bring the
workers into the embrace of the capitalists and
achieve a touching concord in Parliament. But just
as Faust, upon freeing himself from the magic
of Mephistopheles, realizes his dream of “a free
people in a free land,” so will the people, not the
dictators, decide ultimately the destiny of France.
The author discloses the true meaning of the philo-
sophy of skepticism — the bourgeoisie’s dread of
the morrow, its fear of the people and its inability
to offer anything positive as a counterweight to
scientific communism.

These features are especially manifest in the
philosophy of “‘heroic pessimism’ preached by the
fashionable writer Camus, and by Malraux, now
a minister in de Gaulle’s Government. This ideolo-
gical trend is criticized in the article ‘Albert
Camus or the Metaphysics of Counter-Revolution”’
(No. 92), which clearly reveals that Camus’s
writing, although seemingly indifferent to politics,
expresses the views of the more reactionary cir-
cles of the bourgeoisie. In preaching the futility
of human effort, and declaring that evil, war and
injustice are natural phenomena, Camus tries to
depict the absence of prospects for his own class
as the crisis of humanity and civilization. All
Camus’s writing is permeated with the striving
to infect the proletariat with pessimism. Faith
in the future yields to a longing for the golden
past, human solidarity to romantic loneliness, and
social revolution to a mutiny of individuals, who
challenge not the social system, but fate, heaven,
God . . . Such is the metaphysics of the counter-
revolution, which seeks salvation in the ‘‘man of
will,” concludes the article.

Realizing that only an alliance of all republican
forces can bar the way to the dictatorship of
monopolists and colonialists, La Nouvelle Critique
seeks to draw into the general democratic move-
ment big sections of the public, particularly the
Catholic working people and intellectuals on whom
reaction relies, and not for the first time. Michel
Verret in the article “Christians and Politics’
(Nos. 96 and 97) comments on the growing political
activity of Catholics and warns against attempts
to label religious people as one reactionary mass.
A significant part of the Catholics, says the author,
condemn colonialism, capitalist rivalry and exploi-
tation. The Marxists, he goes on to say, should
not antagonize these people, they should win them
from the influence of clerical ideology, help them
to advance from the religious utopia to scientific
communism, so as to turn their moral protest
against injustice into the common channel of social
protest, the class struggle against capitalism.

The struggle against the influence of bourgeois
ideology on the masses can be successful provided

92

it is accompanied by struggle for the ideological
unity of the working class itself. That is why the
journal, naturally, could not ignore the revisionist
writing of H. Lefévre who smuggles into his latest
works bourgeois ideology in the guise of ‘creative
revision”’ of the fundamentals of Marxism.

In the article ‘“‘Henri Lefévre and Marx’s Dialec-
tics’ (No. 94) Lucien Séve criticizes Lefévre’s
distortion of the main formative stages of Marxism.
Asserting that Marx came to dialectics only in
the third vhase of his activity, after 1858, and
only thanks to a ‘“‘casual” re-reading of Hegel’s
Logic, Lefévre deliberately debases the vital works
written by the founders of Marxism in the earlier
period. Lefévre’s distortion of the history of Marx-
ism, says the author, has a definite aim, that of
rehabilitating bourgeois liberalism, syndicalism,
reformism and utopian socialism, which Marx cas-
tigated particularly in his early writing.

J. Suret-Canale’s ‘‘Remarks on Henri Lefévre’s
Method and the Burning Problems of Marxism”
(No: 95) tackles the question of Lefévre’s under-
standing of dialectics and the practical conclusions
to be drawn from it. The author notes that Le-
févre queries the objective nature of Marxist philo-
sophy; materialism, in his view, is merely a pos-
tulate; dialectical materialism is not a science of
the most general laws of nature, society and
thought, it is but a method. Lefévre substitutes
for the Marxist teaching on absolute and relative
truth a vague demand for ‘‘methodological doubt,”
thus opening the doors wide to agnosticism and
subjective idealism and giving currency to idea-
listic conceptions among Marxists on the pretext
of “competition between different schools” of
Marxism.

Suret-Canale also analyzes the reasons for the
recent revival of revisionism in the labor move-
ment. The anti-communist campaign, he writes,
which swept the capitalist West after the Twen-
tieth Congress of the CPSU, although it did not
attain its object, left its traces. “It shook, cor-
rupted and immobilized some sections of the re-
volutionary movement, particularly among the in-
tellectuals. It wanted them to believe that every-
thing done in the name of Marxism over the past
thirty years was now nullified, that all the sacri-
fices of that period had been in vain, that there
could no longer be any confidence in anything.
Lefévre’s arguments, which have precisely this
meaning, are designed to ‘justify’ this trend philo-
sophically.”

In connection with the criticism of Lefévre’s
revisionism Lucien Séve poses an important ques-
tion—‘‘the style of work of the philosopher and

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

perhaps, on a broader scale, the style of work
of the Communist intellectual.’”” This question is
examined by Gilbert Mury in No. 100.

The style of work of the Communist and his
mode of living, he writes, are determined by the
materialist and dialectical nature of his outlook.
Materialism enables the Communists to gain a
deeper understanding of life, actively to participate
in the social struggle, for ‘‘the protest against in-
justice and objective research have common
roots.”” Dialectics, says the author, enables the
Communists to make a thorough analysis of the
facts, to see the complexity of social life and,
consequently, not to fall into despair during tem-
porary setbacks. Marxist optimism constantly de-
rives strength from the class solidarity of the
working people; alien to it are the loneliness and
pessimism peculiar to bourgeois ideology. Genuine
humanism consists in transforming life, not in
abstract protest.

The exposure of bourgeois ideology in the articles
mentioned above does not, naturally, exhaust the
rich and varied content of La Nouvelle Critique
for 1958. The struggle against the pernicious in-
fluence of idealist philosophy, against reformist
illusions and the revisionist infection among some
intellectuals is now, as in the past, an important
feature of the journal. In a message of greetings
on the occasion of the 100th issue Maurice Thorez
wrote: “The fact that since the Liberation, Marxism
has become a pivot of the intellectual and cultural
life of our country in large measure to the
work done by La Nouvelle Critique.”

Ten years is a relatively brief span for a perio-
dical. Nevertheless, even in this brief period the
journal has taken firm root in the fertile soil of
French culture, it has acquired a style and tradi-
tions of its own, and has won the sympathies of
considerable sections of the intellectuals. That
is why it is read with such interest and finds willing
contributors among prominent scholars, workers
of literature and art in France and in other coun-
tries. Perhaps its greatest merit is that it has
developed a school of talented Marxist writers,
who now set its tone.

La Nouvelle Critique is faced with a hard struggle
for the triumph of Marxist ideology in France. In
summing up the results of the past decade, we
share the confidence expressed by Maurice Thorez
that “‘in all fields La Nouvelle Critique will pre-
pare and accelerate the defeat of the forces of
reaction and obscurantism. It will rally the intel-
lectuals around the working class in the struggle
for enlightenment, progress and freedom, in the
struggle for the triumph of communism.”

L. N.

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WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 93

A Policeman Looks at the Communist Party

ASTERS OF DECEIT*, written we rather
suspect not by, but for, J. Edgar Hoover,
chief of the American secret police, is the “story
of American communism” as a policeman sees it.

And, as one would expect, the ‘‘story” is in the
best (or worst) tradition of that galaxy of ephe-
meral police chiefs who in nineteenth century
Prussia and France, in Czarist Russia, Hitler’s
Reich and other countries, furnished their overlords
with tomes of fabricated materials for sensational
Communist trials.

But the police chiefs of the Old World who har-
ried Marx and his followers, odious though they
were, differed in one respect at least from their
contemporary transatlantic colleague—they con-
ducted their nefarious work in the backrooms,
behind the scenes, without undue publicity. Not
so Mr. Hoover. He revels in the glare of the klieg
lights, in newsreel and television appearances and
in granting newspaper interviews. And now with
his policeman’s notebook, and with anti-communism
fashionable as a criterion of literary values, it
may well be that we shall witness the interesting
spectacle of America’s top gendarme being nomi-
nated for some literary prize.

Never did Marx display his insight more than
when, upon finishing his titanic labor on Volume
One of Capital, he wrote in a letter to Engels that
the bourgeoisie would remember his carbuncles for
the rest of their lives. For even though he has
been in his grave in Highgate Cemetery for more
than 65 years, he, judging by Masters of Deceit,
still has a special dossier in the vaults of the FBI.

And it is from this dossier, and from the dossiers
of Engels, Lenin and other Communist leaders,
that the ghost-writers, with an air of erudition,
add the historical touch, and interoret, or rather
distort, in the manner so dear to the heart of a
Goebbels. For instance, Marx is sneered at as
“an egotistical, crabby, stubborn man who from
student days showed no interest in productive
labor to support his family.” Lenin is a “crafty
tiger,’ American Communists are ‘“‘barbarians in
modern dress.” Trade unionists, teachers, doctors,
scientists, writers—all who stand by the revolu-
tionary traditions of America—are reviled as
“spies,” ‘‘foreign agents,” ‘un-American,’ and
“enemies.”

The idea running through the book is that Mr.
Hoover is the amiable old gentleman, the ‘“‘guardian

*“Masters of Deceit.” By J. Edgar Hoover. New York, 1958.

angel,’’ whose sole concern is love for America and
Americans. “‘I,”” we are sanctimoniously told in
the foreword, “have deep faith in the American
people.” And he quotes scripture in support of
the contention that ‘‘truth” is the chief weapon
of his G-men. Yet truth is precisely the one cle-
ment missing from the FBI arsenal, and one would
need a pretty powerful microscope to discover
much of it in Masters of Deceit.

That Hoover is a “guardian angel’’ none will
deny, but not of the working population, not of
the millions whom we know as the American public.
Hoover fears the great American public, so much
so that for the last forty years or more he has
been waging an unrelenting struggle against it. He
is, then, to vary the metaphor, a “fallen angel,”
the guardian of Mammon, of what Jack London
termed the Iron Heel — the handful of big corpora-
tions who rule the USA.

The body of secret police which he heads, known
as the FBI, was born of deceit in 1908. Its imme-
diate founder, a man named Bonaparte, the Attor-
ney General of the day, was, and the point is not
without interest, a grandnephew of the first Napo-
leon. The point whether there should or should
not be a secret police in the United States had
been keenly debated, and rejected, by the Sixtieth
Congress. Bonaparte, undaunted by his rebuff,
took advantage of the Congress recess to form
his Bureau of Investigation in defiance of Senators
and members of the House. When the members
returned to Washington they found themselves
faced with an accomplished fact in the shape of
an incipient secret police.

From the standpoint of the Iron Heel, the times
called for strengthening of the state machine. For
this was the period of the “‘big stick” and of U.S.
imperialist expansion. It was also a period when
the American workers were becoming more arti-
culate and better organized. Trade union member-
ship had risen from 865,000 in 1900 to over 2,000,000
in 1908, and membership of the Socialist Party
headed by Eugene Debs was rising rapidly. The
workers were now challenging the ruling class in
both the economic and political spheres.

Formed by a Bonaparte, what more natural than
that the Bureau should have a Fouché. And a
Fouché it found in the person of J. Edgar Hoover
who in 1919 submitted his first detailed report on
the activity of the newly-born American Communist
Party.

A year earlier, in 1918, the Bureau had carried
out the first really big operation of its ceaseless

94

war against the American public. The war in
Europe was none too popular with ordinary Ame-
ricans, who saw no reason why they should cross
the Atlantic and risk their lives in a war for mono-
poly profits. In the police jargon of the day they
were “‘draft-dodgers,”” and so the G-men got busy.
Raids were planned and carried out in all the
major cities. In New York alone 75,000 men were
arrested. The American lawyer Max Lowenthal
in his book on the FBI makes the point that cut
of every 200 arrests, 199 had been mistakes.

A year later Hoover’s G-men, setting a precedent
for the future Hitler SS, launched another :,ation-
wide night affray against ‘‘radicals.’’ This time
they chose ‘“‘easier’’ victims—the large numbers of
“foreign born’? who had emigrated irom Europe
to the “‘land of the free.”” As they sailed up the
Hudson on the immigrant ships many of them
no doubt recalled the splendid words emblazoned
on the Statue of Liberty: ‘Give me your tired,
your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe
free.’ Little did the yearners dream as their ships
passed the Statue that on a night in November
1919 in cities all over America some ien thousand
of their number would be seized by ruthless police
squads and herded into jails, and detained in con-
ditions which shocked the conscience of all decent
Americans.

The hue and cry against this outrage was so
vociferous that most of the victims had to be
released within a few days. But Mr. Hoover had
to have his revenge—the Navy conveniently loaned
him the S.S. Buford and many of the unfortunate
men, torn from their wives and families and not
allowed to bid them farewell, were shipped back
to Europe. Senator Walsh said apropos of the
“‘radical raids’: ‘‘The indignities and outrages suf-
fered by the victims, the majority of whom were
released, will rankle in their breasts to their
dying day.”

During the interwar years Hoover devoted his
energies to strikebreaking. In every strike fought
in these years, and there were thousands, he
saw ‘‘the hand of Moscow.” Here he was in his
element, working directly for his paymasters — the
big corporations. These empires of high finance and
industry maintain their own secret service bureaus
for spying on their workers, and most of their
agents are recruited from the FBI, no doubt with
a suitable recommendation from its chief. In 1922
when railroad shopmen were resisting a wage
cut, FBI detectives arrested 1,200 workers and, of
course, broke the strike.

But of all his ‘‘accomplishments”’ this American
Fouché is proudest of his record collection of
fingerprints and dossiers. Before becoming a gen-
darme, Hoover followed the more modest and cer-

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

tainly more honorable profession of librarian. The
card-index system in the library seems to have
fascinated him. From the moment he left the quiet
of the bookshelves for the more secluded quarters
of the secret police, he began to develop card-
indexing and fingerprinting on a scale so vast
that by 1931 he was able to boast of “‘the largest
identification bureau in the world.’’ Nor was his
boast an idle one, since by April 1, 1954, his score
had risen to 130,460,252 — all, according to Mr.
Hoover, acquired ‘‘voluntarily.’’ When an astonished
Congressman remarked that he had “‘the finger-
prints of almost everybody in the United States,”
he replied, solemnly and gravely: “No . . . not
yet.”” This preoccupation with fingerprinting im-
pelled a newspaper revorter to the somewhat irre-
verent comment that Mr. Hoover, avparently, would
not be satisfied until he had added the fingerprints
of the Statue of Liberty to his collection.

“Fingerprinting,” said the FBI in 1922, ‘‘will
reduce crime to the minimum.” The crime statis-
tics explode this subterfuge. In 1954, the number
of major crimes officially listed reached the record
figure of 2,267,250. Crime, said the official report
for that year, had increased four times as fast
as the population. And Mr. Hoover’s unsleeping
FBI, the streamlined, ‘‘world’s best’’ police force,
is so busy with witch-hunting and persecuting
law-abiding citizens that it can claim a bare one
per cent of all the criminal arrests and convictions
in the U.S.A.

With the launching of the cold war, Mr. Hoover
stepped up his blitz against the American public.
The huge armament orders had to be justified,
the people had to be prepared psychologically for
war. So a division of labor was arranged between
Dulles and Hoover. In foreign policy Dulles pro-
claimed brinkmanship, in home policy Hoover
worked to create an atmosphere of fear and hys-
teria. All who opposed the war preparations and
the nuclear tests, all who advocated coexistence
with the socialist countries, were denounced as
“spies” and ‘‘agents of Moscow.” Hoover inspired
McCarthy, encouraged him and supplied him with
“‘documents.”’ The Internal Security Act (1950)
and the Communist Control Act (1954) were enacted
in an all-out effort to destroy the Communist
Party.

Hoover now used agents-provocateurs by ihe
thousand. ‘“‘You can imagine,” he told Congress,
“the difficulty we have in getting men who can
do that character of work.” But, lavishly spending
the American taxpayer’s money, the police chief
found creatures for his dirty work. One of these
was Harvey Matusow, whom the Communist Party
expelled in 1951 as an agent-provocateur. After
three years spying for the FBI, Matusow, like the
Biblical Judas, began to have pangs of remorse

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WORLD MARXIST REVIEW 95

and, in mortification, confessed: ‘‘I have lied again
and again in my reports and statements ito these
committees, and I want to go to each individual
about whom I have falsified to ask his forgive-
ness.’’ (During his three years as a professional
perjurer for the FBI Matusow smeared 244 people,
many of whom lost their jobs and were sent to
jail.) Hoover, as always, acted resolutely, and
Matusow, who had told the truth for the first time
in his career, was charged with . . . perjury, and
jailed. David Brown, another FBI ‘‘agent,’”’ con-
fessed that he had ‘‘betrayed the working people
generally; all of the American people, my co-
workers, my family—everybody who ever trusted
me and had confidence in me.”

In the notorious Foley Street trial which senten-
ced Eugene Dennis and the other Communist lead-
ers to long terms of imprisonment, of the thirteen
FBI witnesses four were renegade Communists,
seven were orofessional informers, while two were
“special agents.’’ In the, course of the cross-
examination one of the ovrofessional informers
admitted that he had recruited two cousins into the
Communist Party in order to betray them to the
FBI.

The professional informer is the most despised
and detested creature in all lands at all times. But
Hoover had had him photographed, televised, laud-
ed in the press and elevated to the status of
national hero.

One wonders what Jefferson and the other men
who signed the Declaration of Independence in
1776 would say if they could step out of their graves
and see what Hoover has done to their country.
The Declaration, it will be recalled, castigated
“the King of Great Britain’ who, in his efforts io
establish ‘‘an absolute tyranny over these states,”’
had erected a ‘‘multitude of New Offices, and sent
hither swarms of Officers to harass our people,
and eat out their substance.” Now, nearly iwo
hundred years later, by the irony of history, J.
Edgar Hoover, in an endeavor to establish ihe
tyranny of the Iron Heel, and trampling on the
Declaration of Independence, harasses the people
of America with an army of snecial agents and
professional informers.

Fear, hysterial, bookburning, te'ephone tapping,
wholesale victimization and character assassina-
tion—such are the bitter fruits of the inglorious
reign of Hoover, the master of deceit. This degra-
dation of public life in the United States has
evoked protests even from circles far removed
from communism. Cyrus Eaton, a big industrialist,
declared that Hitler ‘‘in his prime, through the
Gestapo, never had such a spy organization as
we have in this country today.”

Many elections, Presidents and Congresses have
come and gone since Hoover first took command,
but he, like the old man of the sea, clings to the
body politic. The $2,242,240 FBI budget of 1924
and its 441 special agents had risen to $57,400,000
and 4,602 special agents by the mid-1950’s. And. no
one knows the total of undercover agents and
professional informers.

For all its bluster the Hoover book is a testa-
ment to failure. “Remember,” he complains, “‘that
within four decades (that is, the period coinciding
with Hoover’s policemanship—Author) communism
. . . has spread through roughly 40 per cent of
the world’s population and 25 per cent of the
earth’s surface.” And for a man who has spent
the best part of his lifetime trying to destroy the
American Communist Party, it is a rueful admission
that ‘‘the Party is today influencing literally thou-
sands of Americans.”

Policeman Hoover, precisely because he is a
policeman, is incapable of understanding the simple
truth that the Communist Party is indestructible
because it is the flesh and blood of the working
class.

Many years ago the American authorities mur-
dered the Swedish-born worker Joe Hill. Today
the words of the Joe Hill song are part of the folk-
lore of America. Who can forget its stirring words
—especially when sung by that great American
Paul Robeson — ‘‘from San Diego up to Maine,
in every mine and mill, where working men come
out to fight, ’tis there you’ll find Joe Hill.”

And in the America of today names like Foster
and Gurley Flynn who fought alongside Joe Hill
and Tom Mooney, who fought to save Sacco and
Vanzetti, and who in the past decades have taken
part in a hundred class battles in the United States,
are legendary in working class communities. They
and their fellow Communists, and the legion of
non-Communist people who have refused to be
intimidated by Hoover and the Iron Heel, enjoy
the sympathy and respect of hundreds of millions
outside the USA, from Britain all the way across
Europe and Asia and south to Australia. On ihe
other hand, their traducers — the Hoovers and
Dulleses — are despised abroad and spurned at
home, as the latest elections have proved.

In working up the notes supplied by his retinue
of informers into an ‘‘expose’”’ of the American
Communist Party, the unoriginal Hoover remained
true to bourgeois police-chief: tradition. Just over
a hundred years ago a wretched Prussian police-
chief named Stieber submitted to the court a col-
lection of anti-Communist forgeries, also concocted
by informers, under the title The Origina! Minute
Book of the Marx Party. The brilliance with which

96

Marx flayed this Prussian gendarme and exposed
him is now a matter of history. But his final com-
ment on the effair is fully applicable to the Stieber
of the FBI:

“.. . if one considers the tremendous efforts
of the official world against us, the ransacking
of the Code Penal against us, the slanderous ton-
gues of the ‘Democracy of Stupidity’, which has
never been able to forgive us for displaying greater
intelligence and greater strength of character than

WORLD MARXIST REVIEW

it did itself, and the history of all parties of that
period, and if, lastly, we ask where are the facts
that could be adduced against the Party, one
must come to the conclusion that in this nine-
teenth century our Party is distinguished above
all by its purity.’”’ And as it was in the nineteenth,
so it is in the twentieth century, despite all the
machinations of Hoover the “‘cop” and his army of

spies and informers.
John GIBBONS

NEW BOOKS

Below are listed a few of the many interesting Marxist works that have been published
recently, The list will be continued in forthcoming issues of the magazine.

J. Arnault, Procés du colonialisme. (Colonialism on
Trial). Paris, 1958, 331 pages.

G. Bondi, Monopoltheorie—Monopolpraxis. Kriti-
sche Beitrage zur Theorie und Praxis der
Monopole in Westdeutschland. (Monopoly The-
ory—Monopoly Practice. A Critical Survey of
the Theory and Practice of West German Mon-
opolies). Berlin, 1958, 150 pages.

Din lupta PCR pentru inchegarea aliantei clasei
muncitoare cu taranimea muncitoare in batalia
pentru reforma agrara din 1944-1945. (The
Communist Party of Rumania in the Struggle
to Strengthen the Worker-Peasant Alliance
during the Fight for Agrarian Reform in 1944-
45). Vol. 2. Bucharest, 1958, 383 pages.

Gh. Gheorghiu-Dej, Pentru consolidarea si dezvol-
tarea sectorului socialist al agriculturii, pentru
sporirea productiei agricole. (Strengthening
and Developing the Socialist Sector in Agricul-
ture, for Higher Agricultural Output). Bucha-
rest, 1958, 134 pages.

A. Gramsci, Scritti giovanili (1914-18). (Early
Works: 1914-18). Turin, 1958, 392 pages.

Jednotne proti soudobemu revizionizmu. Ohlas
bratrskych komunistickych a delnickych stran
na VII. sjezd Svazu komunistu Jugoslavie.
(Unity Against Modern Revisionism. The Re-
action of the Fraternal Communist and Work-
ers’ Parties to the Seventh Congress of the
Communists of Yugoslavia). Prague, 1958, 325

pages.

J. Kadar, Szilard nepi hatalom—fuggetlen Mag-
yarorszag. (Cikkek es beszedek. 1957-1958).
(Stable People’s Rule Signifies an Independent
Hungary: Articles and Speeches. 1957-1958.)
Budapest, 1958, 429 pages.

Koaapos M1. [Ipouspogutreanusat Tpy mp Kanuta-
JIM3Ma H CounaH3Ma. Codus, 1958, 139 erp.
(P. Kolarov. Productive Labor under Capital-

. ism and Socialism.) Sofia, 1958, 139 pages.

Marxistische Philosophie und sozialistische Politik.
Aktuelle Probleme der marxistischen Philo-
sophie in der Deutschen Demokratischen Re-
publik. (Marxist Philosophy and_ Socialist
Politics. Current Problems of Marxist Philo-
sophy in the German Democratic Republic.)
Berlin, 1958, 191 pages.

Ocnosbl MapkKcucTcKoH dusocodun. Mocksa, 1958,
688 crp.
(Fundamentals of Marxist Philosophy.) Mos-

cow, 1958, 688 pages.

NMasaos T. Xapaktep u 3na4enne Ha comnasnuctiye-
cKaTa peBomounaA B Bbarapus. Codus, 1958,
141 crp
(T. Pavlov. The Character and Significance of
the Socialist Revolution in Bulgaria). Sofia,
1958, 141 pages.

H. Rechowicz. Walka o antyfaszystowski front ludu
slanskiego 1935-1937. (Silesian People’s Struggle
for an Anti-fascist Front in 1935-1937.) Kato-
wice, 1958, 123 pages.

A. Rothstein. The Munich Conspiracy, London,
1958, 320 pages.

CoxpyxectBo cTpan counasu3ma. (COopuuk crareii).
Mocxsa, 1958, 338 crp.

(Friendship of the Socialist Nations: A Col-
lection of Articles), Moscow, 1958, 338 pages.

W. Ulbricht. Zur Geschichte der deutschen Ar-
beiterbewegung. Band 4. 1950-1954. (History
of the German Working-Class Movement. Vol.
4. 1950-1954). Berlin, 1958, 863 pages.

J. Harvey and K. Hood. The British State, London,
1958, 288 pages.

S. Heretik. Nacrt dejin politickey ekonomie. Do
vzniku marxismu. (Essay on the History of
Political Economy: Pre-Marxist.) Bratislava,
1958, 313 pages.

Aspects du capitalisme contemporain. (Features
of Contemporary Capitalism). Paris, 1958, 220
pages. (Recherches internationales, No. 5.)

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